Bristling with steeples, high against the hill,Like some great thistle in the rosy dawnIt stood; the Town-of-Christian-Churches, stood.The Traveller surveyed it with a smile.‘Surely,’ He said, ‘here is the home of peace;Here neighbour lives with neighbour in accord;God in the heart of all. Else why these spires?’(Christmas season, and every bell ringing.) The sudden shriek […]

I was in Dijon when the war’s wild blastWas at its loudest; when there was no soundFrom dawn to dawn, save soldiers marching past,Or rattle of their wagons in the street.When every engine whistle would repeatPersistently, with meaning tense, profound,‘We carry men to slaughter’ or ‘we bringRemnants of men back as war’s offering.’ And there […]

HIS I was so proud of you last night, dear girl,While man with man was striving for your smile.You never lost your head, nor once dropped downFrom your high placeAs queen in that gay whirl. (It takes more poise to wear a little crownWith modesty and graceThan to adorn the lordlier thrones of earth.) You […]

I am singing a song to the boys to-day,A song of the home that is far away.And I know that an echo the word is wakingIn many a heart that is secretly aching,Yes, almost breaking, thinking of Home, dear Home.But thought, dear boys, is a carrier dove,And it flies straight into the hearts you love. […]

I had been almost happy for an hour,Lost to the world that knew me in the parkAmong strange faces; while my little girlLeaped with the squirrels, chirruped with the birdsAnd with the sunlight glowed. She was so dear,So beautiful, so sweet; and for the timeThe rose of love, shorn of its thorn of shame,Bloomed in […]

She looked at her neighbour’s house in the light of the waning day –A shower of rice on the steps, and the shreds of a bride’s bouquet.And then she drew the shade, to shut out the growing gloom,But she shut it into her heart instead. (Was that a voice in the room?) ‘My neighbour is […]

We were a baker’s dozen in the house–six women and six menBesides myself; and all of us had knownThose benefits supposed to come from school and church and brush and pen,And opportunities of being thrownIn contact with the cultured and the gifted people of the day.Being the thirteenth one among six pairsI deemed it wise […]

I saw fond lovers in that glowThat oft-times fades away too soon:I saw and said, ‘Their joy I know –I, too, have had my honeymoon.’ A young expectant mother’s gazeHeld earth and heaven within its scope:My thoughts went back to holy days –I said, ‘I, too, have known that hope.’ I saw a stricken mother […]

Much may be done with the world we are in,Much with the race to better it;We can unfetter it,Free it from chains of the old traditions;Broaden its viewpoint of virtue and sin;Change its conditionsOf labour and wealth;And open new roadways to knowledge and health.Yet some things ever must stay as they areWhile the sea has […]

The world was widowed by the death of Christ:Vainly its suffering soul for peace has soughtAnd found it not.For nothing, nothing, nothing has sufficedTo bring back comfort to the stricken houseFrom whence has gone the Master and the Spouse. In its long widowhood the world has strivenTo find diversion. It has turned awayFrom the vast […]

ON THE ISLE OF CRANAE The world an abject vassal to her charms,And kings competing for a single smile,Yet love she knew not, till upon this isleShe gave surrender to abducting arms.Not Theseus, who plucked her lips’ first kiss,Not Menelaus, lawful mate and spouse,Such answering passion in her heart could rouse,Or wake such tumult in […]

Let us be silent for a little while;Let us be still and listen. We may hearEchoes from other worlds not far a way. City on city rising, steeple out-topping steeple,Gaining and hoarding and spending, and armies on battle bent,People and people and people, and ever more human people –This is not all of creation, this […]

Skilled mariner, and counted sane and wise,That was a curious thing which chanced to me,So good a sailor on so fair a sea.With favouring winds and blue unshadowed skies,Led by the faithful beacon of Love’s eyes,Past reef and shoal, my life-boat bounded freeAnd fearless of all changes that might beUnder calm waves, where many a […]

Musing upon the tragedies of earth,Of each new horror which each hour gives birth,Of sins that scar and cruelties that blightLife’s little season, meant for man’s delight,Methought those monstrous and repellent crimesWhich hate engenders in war-heated times,To God’s great heart bring not so much despairAs other sins which flourish everywhereAnd in all times–bold sins, bare-faced […]

I know the need of the world,Though it would not have me know.It would hide its sorrow deep,Where only God may go.Yet its secret it can not keep;It tells it awake, or asleep,It tells it to all who will heed,And he who runs may read.The need of the world I know. I know the need […]

There must be lonely moments when God feelsThe need of prayer –Such lonely moments, knowing not anywhere,In any spot or place,In all the far recesses of vast space,Dwells any one to whom His prayers may rise,And then, methinks–so urgent is His need –God bids His prayers descend.He that has ears to hear, let him take […]

Midway upon the route, he paused athirstAnd suddenly across the wastes of heat,He saw cool waters gleaming, and a sweetGreen oasis upon his vision burst.A tender dream, long in his bosom nursed,Spread love’s illusive verdure for his feet;The barren sands changed into golden wheat;The way grew glad that late had seemed accursed. She shone, the […]

Little by little and one by one,Out of the ether, were worlds created;Star and planet and sea and sun,All in the nebulous Nothing waitedTill the Nameless One Who has many a nameCalled them to being and forth they came. All things mighty and all things small,Stone and flower and sentient being,Each is an answer to […]

Between the little Here and larger Yonder,There is a realm (or so one day I read)Where faithful spirits love-enchained may wander,Till some remembering soul from earth has fled.Then, reunited, they go forth afar,From sphere to sphere, where wondrous angels are. Not many spirits in that realm are waiting;Not many pause upon its shores to rest;For […]

For the courage which comes when we call,While troubles like hailstones fall;For the help that is somehow nigh,In the deepest night when we cry;For the path that is certainly shownWhen we pray in the dark alone,Let us give thanks. For the knowledge we gain if we waitAnd bear all the buffets of fate;For the vision […]