Oldalképek
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

I SAW from the beach, when the Go, ask the infidel what boon he

morning was shining,

A bark o'er the waters move glori

ously on;

I came when the sun o'er that beach

[blocks in formation]

brings us,

What charm for aching hearts he can reveal,

Sweet as that heavenly promise Hope

sings to us

"Earth has no sorrow that God cannot heal."

THOSE EVENING BELLS.

THOSE evening bells! those evening bells!

How many a tale their music tells, Of youth, and home, and that sweet time

When last I heard their soothing chime!

Those joyous hours are passed away; And many a heart that then was gay, Within the tomb now darkly dwells, And hears no more those evening bells.

And so 'twill be when I am gone,That tuneful peal will still ring on; While other bards shall walk these dells,

And sing your praise, sweet evening bells.

THOU ART, O GOD.

THOU art, O God! the life and light Of all this wondrous world we see; Its glow by day, its smile by night, Are but reflections caught from

Thee.

Where'er we turn Thy glories shine, And all things fair and bright are Thine.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

and the northwest sweeps the empty road, The rain-washed fields from hedge to hedge are bare;

Beneath the leafless elms some hind's abode

Looks small and void, and no smoke meets the air

From its poor hearth: one lonely rook doth dare

The gale, and beats about the unseen corn,

Then turns, and whirling down the wind is borne.

[blocks in formation]

With more than beating of the chilly

rain ?

Shalt thou not hope for joy new-born again,

Since no grief ever born can ever die Through changeless change of seasons passing by?

[From the Earthly Paradise.]
MARCH.

SLAYER of winter, art thou here again?

O welcome, thou that bring'st the summer nigh!

The bitter wind makes not thy victory vain,

Nor will we mock thee for thy faint blue sky.

Welcome, O March! whose kindly days and dry

Make April ready for the throstle's song,

Thou first redresser of the winter's wrong!

Yea, welcome, March! and though I die ere June,

Yet for the hope of life I give thee praise, [tune Striving to swell the burden of the That even now I hear thy brown birds raise, Unmindful of the past or coming days; Igun! Who sing, "O joy! a new year is beWhat happiness to look upon the sun!"

[blocks in formation]

Some weight from off my fluttering mirth to lift ?

- Now when far bells are ringing, "Come again,

Come back, past years! why will ye pass in vain ?"

[From the Earthly Paradise.]
DECEMBER.

DEAD lonely night, and all streets quiet now,

Thin o'er the moon the hindmost cloud swims past

Of that great rack that brought us up the snow;

On earth, strange shadows o'er the snow are cast;

Pale stars, bright moon, swift cloud, make heaven so vast, That earth, left silent by the wind of night,

Seems shrunken 'neath the gray unmeasured height.

Ah! through the hush the looked-for midnight clangs!

And then, e'en while its last stroke's solemn drone

In the cold air by unlit windows hangs,

Out break the bells above the year foredone,

Change, kindness lost, love left unloved alone;

Till their despairing sweetness makes thee deem

Thou once wert loved, if but amidst a dream.

[love, Oh, thou who clingest still to life and Though naught of good, no God thou mayst discern, Though naught that is, thine utmost

woe can move,

Though no soul knows wherewith thine heart doth yearn, Yet, since thy weary lips no curse can learn, [away, Cast no least thing thou lovedst once Since yet, perchance, thine eyes shall see the day.

« ElőzőTovább »