I may not know; my God, no hand revealeth Along the path a deepening shadow stealeth, To all my questioning thought, the time to tell; Let me keep on, abiding and unfearing Through a long century's ripening fruition Thou canst not come too soon; and I can wait SARAH WOOLSEY (SUSAN COOLIDGE). O MAY I JOIN THE CHOIR INVISIBLE O MAY I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence; live In pulses stirred to generosity, In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn Of miserable aims that end with self, In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, So to live is heaven: To make undying music in the world, For which we struggled, failed, and agonized And what may yet be better, saw within A worthier image for the sanctuary, And shaped it forth before the multitude, To higher reverence more mixed with love,— That better self shall live till human Time This is life to come, May I reach MARIAN EVANS LEWES CROSS (GEORGE ELIOT). A WISH I ASK not that my bed of death From bands of greedy heirs be free; I ask not each kind soul to keep There are worse plagues on earth than tears. I ask but that my death may find The freedom to my life denied ; Ask but the folly of mankind Then, then at last, to quit my side. Spare me the whispering, crowded room, The ceremonious air of gloom All, which makes death a hideous show! Nor bring, to see me cease to live, Some doctor full of phrase and fame, To canvass with official breath The future and its viewless things — Which one who feels death's winnowing wings Bring none of these; but let me be, And lived itself, and made us live. There let me gaze, till I become In soul, with what I gaze on, wed! To have before my mind - instead Not human combatings with death! Then willing let my spirit go To work or wait elsewhere or here! MATTHEW ARNOLD. LIFE LIFE! I know not what thou art, But this I know: when thou art fled, As all that then remains of me. O, whither, whither dost thou fly ? Where bend unseen thy trackless course ? Ah, tell where I must seek this compound, I? To the vast ocean of empyreal flame, Wait, like some spell-bound knight, ? Through blank, oblivious years the appointed hour Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; Then steal away, give little warning, Choose thine own time; Say not Good Night, but in some brighter clime ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD. A RHYME OF LIFE If life be as a flame that death doth kill, With a pure flame, that I may rightly see God's plan fulfil. If life be as a flower that blooms and dies, With Judas kiss, and trusting love betrays; If life be as a voyage, foul or fair, For adverse gale, or wave in angry whirl, And anchored there. CHARLES WARREN STODDARD. NOW AND AFTERWARDS ["Two hands upon the breast, and labor is past."— RUSSIAN "Two hands PROVERB] upon the breast, And labor's done; Two pale feet crossed in rest,— The race is won; Two eyes with coin-weights shut, Two lips where grief is mute, So pray we oftentimes, mourning our lot; "Two hands to work addrest Walking his ways; So pray we afterwards, low on our knees; Pardon those erring prayers! Father, hear these ! DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK. |