Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Copyright, 1887,

BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.

All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge:
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.

[merged small][ocr errors]

AND SO I live, you see,

Go through the world, try, prove, reject,
Prefer, still struggling to effect

My warfare; happy that I can
Be crossed and thwarted as a man,
Not left in God's contempt apart,
With ghastly smooth life, dead at heart,
Tame in earth's paddock as her prize.
Thank God, she still each method tries
To catch me, who may yet escape,
She knows, the fiend in angel's shape!
Thank God, no paradise stands barred
To entry, and I find it hard

To be a Christian, as I said!

Still every now and then my head

Raised glad, sinks mournful—all grows drear
Spite of the sunshine, while I fear

And think, "How dreadful to be grudged
No ease henceforth, as one that's judged,
Condemned to earth forever, shut

From heaven!"

But Easter-Day breaks! But

Christ rises! Mercy every way

Is infinite, and who can say?

CHRISTMAS-EVE AND EASTER-DAY.

JANUARY 1-3

1. Arthur Hugh Clough, 1819.

Yet gifts should prove their use !

I own the Past profuse

Of power each side, perfection every turn;

Eyes, ears took in their dole,

Brain treasured up the whole;

Should not the heart beat once

live and learn?"

2. James Wolfe, 1727.

"How good to

RABBI BEN EZRA.

Is this our ultimate stage, or starting-place
To try man's foot, if it will creep or climb,
Mid obstacles in seeming, points that prove
Advantage for who vaults from low to high
And makes the stumbling-block a stepping-stone?

THE RING AND THE BOOK.

3. Douglas Jerrold, 1803.

Still

I mind how love repaired all ill,

Cured wrong, soothed grief, made earth amends
With parents, brothers, children, friends!

EASTER-DAY.

4. Rachel died, 1858.

Love, we are in God's hand.

How strange now looks the life He makes us lead; So free we seem, so fettered fast we are!

ANDREA DEL SARTO.

5. Benjamin Rush, 1745.

Earth's a mill where we grind and wear mufflers,

So, grind away, mouth-wise and pen-wise,
Do all that we can to make men wise!
And if men prefer to be foolish,

Ourselves have proved horse-like not mulish;
Sent grist, a good sackful to hopper,

And worked as the Master thought proper.

6. Charles Sumner, 1811.

PACCHIAROTTO.

For life, with all it yields of joy and woe,
And hope and fear believe the aged friend,
Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love;
How love might be, hath been indeed, and is;
And that we hold thenceforth to the uttermost
Such prize despite the envy of the world,
And having gained truth, keep truth, that is all.

A DEATH IN THE DESERT.

7. Israel Putnam, 1718.

Truth is the strong thing. Let man's life be true!

IN A BALCONY.

« AnteriorContinuar »