Fair Minas' shores thy step did gladden, too!
Thou charm'dst great Glooscap from the unlettered past,
And told'st his story to the listener nigh'st;
Ay, lover of song, of learnëd lore and vast,
Thou lov'dst the Indian with a love so true,
In his sweet tongue thou gavest him the Christ.
[THE TIRELESS SEA.]
Age after age the tireless sea doth fling
Its serried waves against this frowning rock,
(Whose base has known a thousand years of shock,)
And shouts its purpose to its floor to bring.
High up and landward now the ravens wing,
On trees sure-rooted inland nests the hawk;
Instinct of doom! for here swift ships shall dock,
And give of east and west, and commerce sing.
Warriors of truth, unwearied host of God,
Who, like the deep, march to the signs of heaven,
"Thus saith the Lord" your cry, count not the years!
Grey superstition's crumbling front shall nod
Beneath the iteration of your steven,
And God's sweet love flood all the place of tears.
[THE VEILED PRESENCE.]
An ashen grey touched faint my night-dark room,
I flung my window wide to the whispering lawn—
Great God! I saw Thy mighty globe from gloom
Roll with its sleeping millions to the dawn.
No tremor spoke its motion swift and vast,
In hush it swept the awful curve adown,
The shadow that its rushing speed did cast
Concealed the Father's hand, the Kingly crown.