“Although St. Franceses was unwearied in her devotions, yet if, during her prayers, she was called away by her husband or any domestic duty, she would close the book cheerfully, saying that a wife and a mother, when called upon, must quit her God at the alter to find Him in her domestic affairs.”–Legends of […]

Slow buds the pink dawn like a roseFrom out night’s gray and cloudy sheath;Softly and still it grows and grows,Petal by petal, leaf by leaf;Each sleep-imprisoned creature breaksIts dreamy fetters, one by one,And love awakes, and labor wakes,–The morning comes before the sun. What is this message from the lightSo fairer far than light can […]

Softly drops the crimson sun:Softly down from overhead,Drop the bell-notes, one by one,Melting in the melting red;Sign to angel bands unsleeping,–“Day is done, the dark is dread,Take the world in care and keeping. “Set the white-robed sentries close,Wrap our want and wearinessIn the surety of repose;Let the shining presences,Bearing fragrance on their wings,Stand about our […]

My morn was all dewy rose and pearl,Peace brimmed the skies, a cool and fragrant airCaressed my going forth, and everywhereThe radiant webs, by hope and fancy spun,Stretched shining in the sun. Then came a noon, hot, breathless, still,–No wind to visit the dew-thirsty flowers,Only the dust, the road, the urging hours;And, pressing on, I […]

“Entre deux amants il y a toujours l’an qui baise et l’autre qui tend la joue.” I says he loves me well, and IBelieve it; in my hands, to makeOr mar, his life lies utterly,Nor can I the strong plea deny.Which claims my love for his love’s sake. He says there is no face so […]

The boat cast loose her moorings;“Good-by” was all we said.“Good-by, Old World,” we said with a smile,And never looked back as we sped,A shining wake of foam behind,To the heart of the sunset red. Heavily drove our plunging keelThe warring waves between;Heavily strove we night and day,Against the west-wind keen,Bent, like a foe, to bar […]

A grievous day of wrathful winds,Of low-hung clouds, which scud and fly,And drop cold rains, then lift and showA sullen realm of upper sky. The sea is black as night; it roarsFrom lips afoam with cruel spray,Like some fierce, many-throated packOf wolves, which scents and chases prey. Crouched in my little wind-swept nook,I hear the […]

Myriad rivers seek the sea,The sea rejects not any one;A myriad rays of light may beClasped in the compass of one sun;And myriad grasses, wild and free,Drink of the dew which faileth none. A myriad worlds encompass ours;A myriad souls our souls enclose;And each, its sins and woes and powers,The Lord He sees, the Lord […]

We started in the morning, a morning full of glee,All in the early morning, a goodly company;And some were full of merriment, and all were kind and dear:But the others have pursued their way, and left me sitting here. My feet were not so fleet as theirs, my courage soon was gone,And so I lagged […]

Hope stood one morning by the way,And stretched her fair right hand to me,And softly whispered, “For this dayI’ll company with thee.” “Ah, no, dear Hope,” I sighing said;“Oft have you joined me in the morn,But when the evening came, you fledAnd left me all forlorn. “‘Tis better I should walk aloneThan have your company […]

They know the time to go!The fairy clocks strike their inaudible hourIn field and woodland, and each punctual flowerBows at the signal an obedient headAnd hastes to bed. The pale AnemoneGlides on her way with scarcely a good-night;The Violets tie their purple nightcaps tight;Hand clasped in hand, the dancing Columbines,In blithesome lines, Drop their last […]

“Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter, passing by, might overshadow some of them.” Mid the thronged bustle of the city street,In the hot hush of noon,I wait, with folded hands and nerveless feet.Surely He will come […]

What whispered Love the day he fled?Ah! this was what Love whispered;“You sought to hold me with a chain;I fly to prove such holding vain. “You bound me burdens, and I boreThe burdens hard, the burdens sore;I bore them all unmurmuring,For Love can bear a harder thing. “You taxed me often, teased me, wept;I only […]

In covert of a leafy porch,Where woodbine clings,And roses drop their crimson leaves,He sits and sings;With soft brown crest erect to hear,And drooping wings. Shut in a narrow cage, which barsHis eager flight,Shut in the darker prison-houseOf blinded sight,Alike to him are sun and stars,The day, the night. But all the fervor of high noon,Hushed, […]

The baby Summer lies asleep and dreaming–Dreaming and blooming like a guarded rose;And March, a kindly nurse, though rude of seeming,Is watching by the cradle hung with snows. Her blowing winds but keep the rockers swinging,And deepen slumber in the shut blue eyes,And the shrill cadences of her high singingAre to the babe but wonted […]

Why should I weary you, dear heart, with words,Words all discordant with a foolish pain?Thoughts cannot interrupt or prayers do wrong,And soft and silent as the summer rainMine fall upon your pathway all day long. Giving as God gives, counting not the costOf broken box or spilled and fragrant oil,I know that, spite of your […]

As purely white as is the drifted snow,More dazzling fair than summer roses are,Petalled with rays like a clear rounded star,When winds pipe chilly, and red sunsets glow,Your blossoms blow. Sweet with a freshening fragrance, all their own,In which a faint, dim breath of bitter lies,Like wholesome breath mid honeyed flatteries;When other blooms are dead, […]

Lonely and cold and fierce I keep my way,Scourge of the lands, companioned by the storm,Tossing to heaven my frontlet, wild and gray,Mateless, yet conscious ever of a warmAnd brooding presence close to mine all day. What is this alien thing, so near, so far,Close to my life always, but blending never?Hemmed in by walls […]

“For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Thy kingdom here?Lord, can it be?Searching and seeking everywhereFor many a year,“Thy kingdom come” has been my prayer.Was that dear kingdom all the while so near? Blinded and dullWith selfish sin,Have I been sitting at the gatesCalled Beautiful,Where Thy fair angel stands and waits,With hand upon […]

After the earthquake shock or lightning dartComes a recoil of silence o’er the lands,And then, with pulses hot and quivering hands,Earth calls up courage to her mighty heart,Plies every tender, compensating art,Draws her green, flowery veil above the scar,Fills the shrunk hollow, smooths the riven plain,And with a century’s tendance heals againThe seams and gashes […]