We sat beneath the white-stemmed birches bending
To reach the gurgling waters of the bay,
We saw the boats their courses seaward wending,
And earth seemed fair,—before us life's long day,
Night far away.
But often clouds would veil the sunlight over,
A moment cast a shadow and float by;
So stealthily above our hearts would hover
Sad thoughts to pause a moment, pass and die,
We knew not why.
We heeded not the moaning of the river,
Nor did the wind a whispered message bring;
Ah, now I know they murmured—part forever!
For that dull gloom above us hovering,
Was Death's dark wing.
Eternity
Eternity thou dark unbounded sea,
Upon whose tide we drift into the night,
One moment let us with our mortal sight
Pierce through the fogs and know thy mystery.
Voiceless thou art and voiceless wilt thou be,
Across thy still, cold deeps there comes no light,
While age and æon or a moment's flight
Pass on as one and vanish lost in thee.
Yet onward driven must our frail barques go,
Though through the night no beacon gleams afar,
And storm-clouds hide the steadfast guiding-star;
The purpose of our wandering and our woe,
A tide that wafts to some safe harbour bar,
O God, that we might know, might only know!
The Old School Bell
I can hear it calling, calling, sounding on the morning breeze,
As so often I have heard it call before,
And its ringing thrills my spirit as the wind the whispering trees,
But alas, I know for me it calls no more.
Ah, how sweet the memory lingers!
Though old Time's relentless fingers
Oft have turned the glass while flowed the sands away,
Yet I'd give the dearest treasure
Hardly gained from Fortune's measure,
Could I be a boy again for one short day.