Once only; haply if we keep
Watch with our lamps and do not sleep,
Our eyes shall, when the night is deep,
Behold the bridegroom’s face,—and weep.
Alas! for better far it were
That Love were heedless of our prayer
Than that his glory he should bare
And show himself to our despair.
Better to wander till we die
And never come the door anigh,
Than weeping sore without to lie
And get no answer to our cry.
O child! the night is cold and blind,
The way is rough with rain and wind,
Narrow and steep and hard to find;
But I have found thee—love, be kind.
J. B. B. Nichols.
THE HORIZON.
OH, would, oh, would that thou and I,
Now this brief day of love is past,
Could toward the sunset straightway fly,
And fold our wearied wings at last
There, where the sea-line meets the sky.
A sweet thing and a strange ’twould be
Thus, thus to break our prison bars,
And know that we at last were free
As voiceful waves and silent stars,—
There, where the sky-line meets the sea.
But vain the longing! thou and I,
As we have been must ever be,
Yet thither, wind, oh, waft my sigh,
There where the sky-line meets the sea,—
There where the sea-line meets the sky.
James Ashcroft Noble.
SHADOWS.
AZURE of sky and silver of cloud
In the deep dark water show,
Amber of field and emerald of wood
That were pictured long ago.