COURAGE
I
| I'd once a friend—what joy to say!— Who when he took a holiday Would climb the towering Dolomites And strive with Fear upon the heights; Tied to a rope, down dangling sheer, He'd talk to God through clouds of Fear. O give me friends like that, I say, And such a gallant holiday. |
II
| I'd another friend, in another pale, Who spent a holiday in jail. He fought for what his heart deemed right, And they shut him up in walls of night. Yet merrily his heart did sing Like a mating bird that hails the Spring. |
AUNT ZILLAH SPEAKS
| I never look upon the sea And hear its waves sighing, But I must hie me home again To still my heart's wild crying. All my years like drowned sailors, All my days that used to be, Seem drifting in the silver spray And mourning by the sea. But when I take a holiday I go where flowers are growing, Where thrushes sing and skylarks wing And happy streams are flowing; And the great hills clothed with bracken, As far as I would flee, Fling their towering crests to the stars on high To hide me from the sea. |