FOREPLEDGED

O WOMAN, let thy heart not cleave To any poet's soul;

For he the muse will never leave, But follow to life's goal.

Then trust him not, he is not thine,
Whate'er he seems to be;
Strong unseen tendrils round him twine,
And keep him still from thee.

His words with passion are athrill,
And bear contagious fire;

He knows the charmer's perfect skill
To wake the heart's desire.

But love him not, his love is woe; The genius at his side

Would prove for thee a fatal foe Wert thou his wedded bride.

FROM "GOD AND THE SOUL"

NATURE AND THE CHILD

FOR many bessings I to God upraise
A thankful heart; the life He gives is fair
And sweet and good, since He is every-
where,

Still with me even in the darkest ways.
But most I thank Him for my earliest days,
Passed in the fields and in the open air,
With flocks and birds and flowers, free
from all care,

And glad as brook that through a meadow strays.

O balmy air, O orchards white with bloom,
O waving fields of ever-varying green,
O deep, mysterious woods, whose leafy
gloom

Invites to pensive dreams of worlds unseen,
To thoughts as solemn as the silent tomb,
No power from you my heart can ever wean !

That it may glow with a more perfect grace, And bear a nobler life through boundless space,

Till time shall bring eternity in sight.
So man, if he would truly live, must die,
Descending through the grave that he may
rise

To higher worlds and dwell in purer sky;
Making of seeming life the sacrifice
To share the perfect life with God on high,
Where love divine is the infinite prize.

THE VOID BETWEEN

WHEN from the gloom of earth we see the sky,

The happy stars seem each to other near, And their low-whispered words we almost hear,

As in sweet company they smile or sigh.
Alas! infinite worlds between them lie,
And solitary each within its sphere
Rolls lonely ever onward without cheer,
Is born, and lives and dies with no one

near.

And so men's souls seem close together bound,

But worlds immeasurable lie between,
And each is centre in a void profound,
Wherein he lonely lives sad or serene,
And, planet-like, moves higher centre round,
Whence light he draws as from the sun
night's Queen.

AT THE NINTH HOUR

ELI, Eli, lama sabacthani ?

O sadder than the ocean's wailing moan, Sadder than homes whence life and joy have flown,

Than graves where those we love in darkness lie;

More full of anguish than all agony
Of broken hearts, forsaken of their own
And left in hopeless misery alone,
Is this, O sweet and loving Christ, Thy
cry!

For this, this only is infinite pain:
To feel that God Himself has turned away.
If He abide, all loss may still be gain,
And darkest night be beautiful as day.
But lacking Him the universe is vain,
And man's immortal soul is turned to
clay.