But out of his warm arms, startled
And stirred by Love’s first shock,
She sprang afraid, like a trembling maid,
And hid in the niche of a rock.
And the Sunbeam followed and found her,
And led her to Love’s own feast;
And they were wed on that rocky bed,
And the dying Day was their priest.
And lo! the beautiful Opal—
That rare and wondrous gem—
Where the moon and sun blend into one,
Is the child that was born to them.
THE DIFFERENCE.
PASSION is what the sun feels for the earth
When harvests ripen into golden birth.
Lust is the hot simoon whose burning breath
Sweeps o’er the fields with devastating death.
Passion is what God felt, the Holy One,
Who loved the world so, He begot his Son.
Lust is the impulse Satan peering in
To Eden had, when he taught Eve to sin.
One sprang from light, and one from darkness grew
How dim the vision that confounds the two!