DEDICATION Sweet friends, receive my offering. You will findAgainst each worded page a white page set:–This is the mirror of each friendly mindReflecting that. In this book we are met.Make it, dear hearts, of worth to you indeed:–Let your white page be ground, my print be seed,Growing to golden ears, that faith and hope shall […]

Content Primroses,With hearts at rest in your thick leaves’ soft care,Peeping as from his mother’s lap the childWho courts shy shelter from his own open air!–Hanging Harebell,Whose blue heaven to no wanderer ever closes,Though thou still lookest earthward from thy domed cell!–Fluttering-wildAnemone, so wellNamed of the Wind, to whom thou, fettered-free,Yieldest thee, helpless–wilfully,With Take me […]

“Murmuring, ‘twixt a murmur and moan,Many a tune in a single tone,For every ear with a secret true–The sea-shell wants to whisper to you.” “Yes–I hear it–far and faint,Like thin-drawn prayer of drowsy saint;Like the muffled sounds of a summer rain;Like the wash of dreams in a weary brain.” “By smiling lip and fixed eye,You […]

I. Old fables are not all a lieThat tell of wondrous birth,Of Titan children, father Sky,And mighty mother Earth. Yea, now are walking on the groundSons of the mingled brood;Yea, now upon the earth are foundSuch daughters of the Good. Earth-born, my sister, thou art stillA daughter of the sky;Oh, climb for ever up the […]

Of old, with goodwill from the skies–God’s message to them given–The angels came, a glad surprise,And went again to heaven. But now the angels are grown rare,Needed no more as then;Far lowlier messengers can bearGod’s goodwill unto men. Each year, the snowdrops’ pallid dawnBreaks from the earth below;Light spreads, till, from the dark updrawn,The noontide […]

I am weary, and very lonely,And can but think–think.If there were some water onlyThat a spirit might drink–drink,And arise,With light in the eyesAnd a crown of hope on the brow,To walk abroad in the strength of gladness,Not sit in the house, benumbed with sadness–As now! But, Lord, thy child will be sad–As sad as it […]

I. Night, with her power to silence day,Filled up my lonely room,Quenching all sounds but one that layBeyond her passing doom,Where in his shed a workman gayWent on despite the gloom. I listened, and I knew the sound,And the trade that he was plying;For backwards, forwards, bound on bound,A shuttle was flying, flying–Weaving ever–till, all […]

In the desert by the bush,Moses to his heart said Hush. David on his bed did pray;God all night went not away. From his heap of ashes foulJob to God did lift his soul, God came down to see him there,And to answer all his prayer. On a dark hill, in the wind,Jesus did his […]

When God’s own child came down to earth,High heaven was very glad;The angels sang for holy mirth;Not God himself was sad! Shall we, when ours goes homeward, fret?Come, Hope, and wait on Sorrow!The little one will not forget;It’s only till to-morrow!

Heaven and the sea attend the dying day,And in their sadness overflow and blend–Faint gold, and windy blue, and green and gray:Far out amid them my pale soul I send. For, as they mingle, so mix life and death;An hour draws near when my day too will die;Already I forecast unheaving breath,Eviction on the moorland […]

They were parted then at last?Was it duty, or force, or fate?Or did a worldly blastBlow-to the meeting-gate? An old, short story is this!A glance, a trembling, a sigh,A gaze in the eyes, a kiss–Why will it not go by!

I. A pale green sky is gleaming;The steely stars are few;The moorland pond is steamingA mist of gray and blue. Along the pathway lonelyMy horse is walking slow;Three living creatures only,He, I, and a home-bound crow! The moon is hardly shapingHer circle in the fog;A dumb stream is escapingIts prison in the bog. But in […]

Autumn clouds are flying, flyingO’er the waste of blue;Summer flowers are dying, dying,Late so lovely new.Labouring wains are slowly rollingHome with winter grain;Holy bells are slowly tollingOver buried men. Goldener light sets noon a sleepingLike an afternoon;Colder airs come stealing, creepingFrom the misty moon;And the leaves, of old age dying,Earthy hues put on;Out on every […]

Why dost thou want to singWhen thou hast no song, my heart?If there be in thee a hidden spring,Wherefore will no word start? On its way thou hearest no song,Yet flutters thy unborn joy!The years of thy life are growing long–Art still the heart of a boy?– Father, I am thy child!My heart is in […]

Had I a great ship coming home,With big plunge o’er the sea,What bright things, hid from star and foam,Lay in her heart for thee! The stormy billows heave and dip,The wild winds veer and play;But, regnant all, God’s stately shipIs steering home this way!

Waking in the night to pray,Sleeping when the answer comes,Foolish are we even at play–Tearfully we beat our drums!Cast the good dry bread away,Weep, and gather up the crumbs! “Evermore,” while shines the day,“Lord,” we cry, “thy will be done!”Soon as evening groweth gray,Thy fair will we fain would shun!“Take, oh, take thy hand away!See […]

Love is the part, and love is the whole;Love is the robe, and love is the pall;Ruler of heart and brain and soul,Love is the lord and the slave of all!I thank thee, Love, that thou lov’st me;I thank thee more that I love thee. Love is the rain, and love is the air,Love is […]

I. We bore him through the golden land,One early harvest morn;The corn stood ripe on either hand–He knew all about the corn. How shall the harvest gathered beWithout him standing by?Without him walking on the lea,The sky is scarce a sky. The year’s glad work is almost done;The land is rich in fruit;Yellow it floats […]

Little one, you must not fretThat I take your clothes away;Better sleep you so will get,And at morning wake more gay–Saith the children’s mother. You I must unclothe again,For you need a better dress;Too much worn are body and brain;You need everlastingness–Saith the heavenly father. I went down death’s lonely stair;Laid my garments in the […]

I. A glory on the chamber wall!A glory in the brain!Triumphant floods of glory fallOn heath, and wold, and plain. Earth lieth still in hopeless bliss;She has, and seeks no more;Forgets that days come after this,Forgets the days before. Each ripple waves a flickering fireOf gladness, as it runs;They laugh and flash, and leap and […]