Spring bursts to-day, For Christ is risen and all the earth’s at play. Flash forth, thou Sun, The rain is over and gone, its work is done. Winter is past, Sweet Spring is come at last, is come at last. Bud, Fig and Vine, Bud, Olive, fat with fruit and oil and wine. Break forth […]

1. Man rising to the doom that shall not err,– Which hath most dread: the arouse of all or each; All kindreds of all nations of all speech, Or one by one of him and him and her? While dust reanimate begins to stir Here, there, beyond, beyond, reach beyond reach; While every wave refashions […]

They are flocking from the East And the West, They are flocking from the North And the South, Every moment setting forth From realm of snake or lion, Swamp or sand, Ice or burning; Greatest and least, Palm in hand And praise in mouth, They are flocking up the path To their rest, Up the […]

“Thou whom I love, for whom I died, Lovest thou Me, My bride?”– Low on my knees I love Thee, Lord, Believed in and adored. “That I love thee the proof is plain: How dost thou love again?”– In prayer, in toil, in earthly loss, In a long-carried cross. “Yea, thou dost love: yet one […]

Inner not outer, without gnash of teeth Or weeping, save quiet sobs of some who pray And feel the Everlasting Arms beneath,– Blackness of darkness this, but not for aye; Darkness that even in gathering fleeteth fast, Blackness of blackest darkness close to day. Lord Jesus, through Thy darkened pillar cast, Thy gracious eyes all-seeing […]

Lord, if I love Thee and Thou lovest me, Why need I any more these toilsome days; Why should I not run singing up Thy ways Straight into heaven, to rest myself with Thee? What need remains of death-pang yet to be, If all my soul is quickened in Thy praise; If all my heart […]

“I have not sought Thee, I have not found Thee, I have not thirsted for Thee: And now cold billows of death surround me, Buffeting billows of death astound me,– Wilt Thou look upon, wilt Thou see Thy perishing me?” “Yea, I have sought thee, yea, I have found thee, Yea, I have thirsted for […]

Unmindful of the roses, Unmindful of the thorn, A reaper tired reposes Among his gathered corn: So might I, till the morn! Cold as the cold Decembers, Past as the days that set, While only one remembers And all the rest forget,– But one remembers yet.

A lowly hill which overlooks a flat, Half sea, half country side; A flat-shored sea of low-voiced creeping tide Over a chalky, weedy mat. A hill of hillocks, flowery and kept green Round Crosses raised for hope, With many-tinted sunsets where the slope Faces the lingering western sheen. A lowly hope, a height that is […]

Woman was made for man’s delight,– Charm, O woman! Be not afraid! His shadow by day, his moon by night, Woman was made. Her strength with weakness is overlaid; Meek compliances veil her might; Him she stays, by whom she is stayed. World-wide champion of truth and right, Hope in gloom, and in danger aid, […]

A dancing Bear grotesque and funny Earned for his master heaps of money, Gruff yet good-natured, fond of honey, And cheerful if the day was sunny. Past hedge and ditch, past pond and wood He tramped, and on some common stood; There, cottage children circling gaily, He in their midmost footed daily. Pandean pipes and […]

While we slumber and sleep, The sun leaps up from the deep,– Daylight born at the leap,– Rapid, dominant, free, Athirst to bathe in the uttermost sea. While we linger at play– If the year would stand at May!– Winds are up and away, Over land, over sea, To their goal, wherever their goal may […]

From depth to height, from height to loftier height, The climber sets his foot and sets his face, Tracks lingering sunbeams to their halting-place, And counts the last pulsations of the light. Strenuous thro’ day and unsurprised by night He runs a race with Time, and wins the race, Emptied and stripped of all save […]

A robin said: The Spring will never come, And I shall never care to build again. A Rosebush said: These frosts are wearisome, My sap will never stir for sun or rain. The half Moon said: These nights are fogged and slow, I neither care to wax nor care to wane. The Ocean said: I […]

Wintry boughs against a wintry sky; Yet the sky is partly blue And the clouds are partly bright. Who can tell but sap is mounting high Out of sight, Ready to burst through? Winter is the mother-nurse of Spring, Lovely for her daughter’s sake. Not unlovely for her own; For a future buds in everything […]

“Arise, depart, for this is not your rest.” Oh, burden of all burdens,–still to arise And still depart, nor rest in any wise! Rolling, still rolling thus to east from west, Earth journeys on her immemorial quest, Whom a moon chases in no different guise. Thus stars pursue their courses, and thus flies The sun, […]

Many a flower hath perfume for its dower, And many a bird a song, And harmless lambs milkwhite beside their dams Frolic along,– Perfume and song and whiteness offering praise In humble, peaceful ways. Man’s high degree hath will and memory, Affection and desire; By loftier ways he mounts of prayer and praise, Fire unto […]

A night was near, a day was near; Between a day and night I heard sweet voices calling clear, Calling me: I heard a whirr of wing on wing, But could not see the sight; I long to see my birds that sing,– I long to see. Below the stars, beyond the moon, Between the […]

1. Whoso hears a chiming for Christmas at the nighest, Hears a sound like Angels chanting in their glee, Hears a sound like palm-boughs waving in the highest, Hears a sound like ripple of a crystal sea. Sweeter than a prayer-bell for a saint in dying, Sweeter than a death-bell for a saint at rest, […]

“Love brought Me down; and cannot love make thee Carol for joy to Me? Hear cheerful robin carol from his tree, Who owes not half to Me I won for thee.” “Yea, Lord, I hear his carol’s wordless voice; And well may he rejoice Who hath not heard of death’s discordant noise. So might I […]