Who hears no voice in wind or sun,
Believer in some primal curse,
Deaf in God’s loving universe!
Mr. Knowles has not embraced the diffusive faith that has no faith to stay it, but is endeavoring to read the newer meaning into the older truths, which is the present-day office of singer and seer. In the matter of personal valor, of optimistic, intrepid mood, Mr. Knowles’ work is altogether commendable. He awaits with buoyant cheer what lies beyond the turn o’ the road. His poem “Fear,” from the first collection, was widely quoted at the time because of its heartening tone, and in his new volume, “A Challenge,” “A Twofold Prayer,” and many another sounds the same invincible note. “Laus Mortis” is a hymn to death holding within it the truer acceptation of that natural and therefore kindly change:
Nay, why should I fear Death,
Who gives us life, and in exchange takes breath?
He is like cordial Spring
That lifts above the soil each buried thing;
Like autumn, kind and brief—
The frost that chills the branches frees the leaf;