But when the first cloud darkens in our sky,

And face to face with Life we stand alone, Silent and swift, behold! she draweth nigh, And mutely makes our sufferings her own.

Though with its bitterness the heart runs o'er, No words the sweetness of her lips divide; But when the eye looks up for light once more, She turns the cloud and shows its golden side.

Unto rebellious souls, that, mad with Fate,
To question God's eternal justice dare,

She points above with looks that whisper, "Wait -
What seems confusion here is wisdom there."

To the vain challenges of doubt we send,
No answering comfort doth she minister;
Her face looks ever forward to the end,
And we, who see it not, are led by her.

She doth not chide, nor in reproachful guise
The griefs we cherish rudely thrust apart;
But in the light of her immortal eyes

Revives the manly courage of the heart.

Daughter of God! who walkest with us here,
Who mak'st our every tribulation thine,
Such light hast thou in Earth's dim atmosphere,
How must thy seat in Heaven exalted shine!

How fair thy presence by those living streams
Where Sin and Sorrow from their troubling cease!
Where on thy brow the crown of amaranth gleams,
And in thy hand the golden key of Peace!

BEDOUIN SONG.

FROM the Desert I come to thee
On a stallion shod with fire;
And the winds are left behind
In the speed of my desire.
Under thy window I stand,

And the midnight hears my cry:

I love thee, I love but thee,

With a love that shall not die

Till the sun grows cold,

And the stars are old,

And the leaves of the Judgment
Book unfold!

Look from thy window and see

My passion and my pain;

I lie on the sands below,

And I faint in thy disdain.

Let the night-winds touch thy brow
With the heat of my burning sigh,
And melt thee to hear the vow

Of a love that shall not die

Till the sun grows cold,

And the stars are old,

And the leaves of the Judgment
Book unfold!

My steps are nightly driven,

By the fever in my breast,
To hear from thy lattice breathed

The word that shall give me rest.

Open the door of thy heart,

And open thy chamber door,
And my kisses shall teach thy lips
The love that shall fade no more

Till the sun grows cold,

And the stars are old,

And the leaves of the Judgment
Book unfold!

DESERT HYMN TO THE SUN.

I.

Under the arches of the morning sky,

Save in one heart, there beats no life of Man ; The yellow sand-hills bleak and trackless lie, And far behind them sleeps the caravan. A silence, as before Creation, broods Sublimely o'er the desert solitudes.

II.

A silence as if God in Heaven were still,
And meditating some new wonder! Earth
And Air the solemn portent own, and thrill

With awful prescience of the coming birth.
And Night withdraws, and on their silver cars
Wheel to remotest space the trembling Stars.