For the clouds came down out of heaven; With light he was robed and crowned, Till glory exceeded glory On the gathering storm around. They melted to mists of silver; And then he was seen no longer; And amid the vanished mountains And knew that their resurrection And knew that the living who love us, May level our grand horizon, And beauty and joy shut out. And knew — O comforting wonder! That the mightiest Love of all, Perceived not, is round about us Like an everlasting wall. So, amid invisible summits, We wrapped us in calms of thought. Faith lulled us to slumber; and morning To life the dead mountains brought. Lucy Larcom. YE DAINTY MOSSES. YE dainty mosses, lichens gray, Pressed each to each in tender fold, And peacefully thus, day by day, Brown leaves, that with aërial grace Slip from your branch like birds a-wing, If we, God's conscious creatures, knew But with an equal patience sweet We should put off this mortal gear, In whatsoe'er new form is meet Content to reappear. Knowing each germ of life He gives May change, but never dies. Ye dead leaves, dropping soft and slow, Mrs. Craik THE STREAM OF LIFE. STREAM descending to the sea, The flow'rets blow, the grasses grow, In garden plots the children play, O life descending into death, Strong purposes our minds possess, We toil and earn, we seek and learn, O end to which our currents tend, To which we flow, what do we know, A roar we hear upon thy shore, Scarce we divine a sun will shine Arthur Hugh Clough. THE GOLDEN ISLAND: ARRAN FROM AYR. D1 EEP set in distant seas it lies; The morning vapors float and fall, The noonday clouds above it rise, And sometimes, when that shroud uplifts, The far green fields show strange and fair ; Mute waterfalls in silver rifts Sparkle adown the hillside bare. But ah! mists gather, more and more; O vanished Island of the blest! Hides loves that have but seemed to die, Whether on seas dividing tossed, Or led through fertile lands the while, For lo! when gloaming shadows glide, Its purple peaks shine, outlined grand |