Coom oop, proputty, proputty-that's what I 'ears 'im saäy Proputty, proputty, proputty — canter an' canter awaay. THE VICTIM. I: A PLAGUE upon the people fell, Help us from famine And plague and strife! What would you have of us ? Were it our nearest, Were it our dearest, II. But still the foeman spoil'd and burn'd, And whiten'd all the rolling flood; Or down in a furrow scathed with flame; In child and wife; III. The Priest went out by heath and hill; She cast her arms about the child. And cried with joy, "The Gods have answer'd: IV. The King return'd from out the wild, V. The King bent low, with hand on brow, For now the Priest has judged for me." The King was shaken with holy fear; "The Gods," he said, "would have chosen well; Yet both are near, and both are dear, And which the dearest I cannot tell!" But the Priest was happy, "We have his dearest, VI. The rites prepared, the victim bared, 66 He caught her away with a sudden cry; 66 I am his dearest!" rush'd on the knife. 66 O, Father Odin, We give you a life. Which was his nearest? WAGES. GLORY of warrior, glory of orator, glory of song, Paid with a voice flying by to be lost on an endless sea Glory of Virtue, to fight, to struggle, to right the wrong Nay, but she aim'd not at glory, no lover of glory she: Give her the glory of going on, and still to be. The wages of sin is death: if the wages of Virtue be dust, Would she have heart to endure for the life of the worm and the fly? She desires no isles of the blest, no quiet seats of the just, To rest in a golden grove, or to bask in a summer sky: Give her the wages of going on, and not to die. THE HIGHER PANTHEISM. THE sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns? Is not the Vision He? tho' He be not that which He seems? Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams? Earth, these solid stars, this weight of body and limb, Are they not sign and symbol of thy division from Him? Dark is the world to thee: thyself art the reason why; For is He not all but thou, that hast power to feel "I am I"? Glory about thee, without thee; and thou fulfillest thy doom, Making Him broken gleams, and a stifled splendor and gloom. Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. God is law, say the wise; O Soul, and let us rejoice, For if He thunder by law the thunder is yet His voice. Law is God, say some: no God at all, says the fool; For all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool; And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot see; But if we could see and hear, this Vision not He? were it FLOWER in the crannied wall, LUCRETIUS. LUCILIA, wedded to Lucretius, found |