The Coming of the Princess, and Other Poems Part 7

Do ye wear the sacred lotus,--have ye entered into peace?

Do ye hear us when we call you,--do ye heed the tears we shed,-- Oh beloved!--oh immortal!--oh ye dead who are not dead!

Speak to us across the darkness,---wave to us a glimmering hand,-- Tell us but that ye _remember_, dwellers in the silent land!

But the sunset clouds have faded, arch and capital are gone, And the regal night is glorious, with the starlight overblown;-- Life is labor and not dreaming, and I have my work to do, Ere within those happy valleys I shall wear the lilies too.

THE SABBATH OF THE WOODS

Sundown--and silence--and deep peace,-- Night's benediction and release;-- The tints of day die out and cease.

This morn I heard the Sabbath bells Across the breezy upland swells;-- My path lay down the woodland dells.

To-day, I said, the dust of creeds, The wind of words reach not my needs;-- I wors.h.i.+p with the birds and weeds.

From height to height the sunbeam sprung, The wild vine, touched with vermeil, clung, The mountain brooklet leapt and sung.

The white lamp of the lily made A tender light in deepest shade,-- The solitary place was glad.

The very air was tremulous,-- I felt its deep and reverent hush,-- G.o.d burned before me in the bus.h.!.+

And nature prayed with folded palm, And looks that wear perpetual calm,-- The while glad notes uplifted psalm.

The wild rose swung her fragrant vase, The daisy answered from her place,-- Praise Him whose looks are full of grace.

And violets murmured where the feet Of brooks made hollows cool and deep; He giveth His beloved sleep.

Wide stood the great cathedral doors, Arched o'er with heaven's radiant floors;-- Nature, with lifted brow, adores.

And wave, and wind, and rocking trees, And voice of birds, and hum of bees, Made anthem, like the roll of seas.

The sunset vapors sail and swim;-- All day uprose their mighty hymn,-- I listened till the woods were dim.

And through the beechen aisles there fell A silver silence, like a spell.

The heifer's home returning bell,

Faint and remote, as if it grew A portion of that silence too, Dissolved and ceased, like falling dew.

Stars twinkled through the coming night,-- A voice dropped down the purple height,-- At even time it shall be light.

Ah rest my soul, for G.o.d is good, Though sometimes faintly understood, His goodness fills the solitude.

Fold up thy spirit,--trust the right, As blossoms fold their leaves at night, And trust the sun though out of sight.

A VALENTINE

At last, dear love, the day is gone, The doors are barred--the lamps are lit, The couch beside the fire is drawn, The nook wh.o.r.e thou wert wont to sit;

The book is open at the place, And half its leaves are still uncut, And yet without thy listening face, I cannot read, the book I shut,

And muse, and dream:--it is the day When lovers, silent all the year, Find tongues in floral tokens gay, To whisper all they long to hear.

Ah, many a time, and many a time I saw the question in thine eyes, Where is the silver-sounding rhyme, The simple household melodies,

The harp that trembled to thy touch; Hast thou forgot thine early lore?

And know'st not that I love so much, That song contents my heart no more.

For thou hast made my life so sweet, With dainty gifts thy dear hands bring, Rich with thine affluence, and complete, I have no longing left to sing.

And yet, I have such vast desires, Such thirst for some great destiny, That all the poet's weaker fires Burn into prophecies for thee.

The circle of our home could make The boundaries of my world, but thine So splendid is,--for thy dear sake, I fain would push the bounds of mine.

For this I study as I may To walk with thee, the world of mind, To follow where thou lead'st the way, A step,--but just a step behind.

Thy hand in mine, thine earnest eyes Fixed ever on the radiant goal, Together shall we climb the skies, And mingle there, one perfect soul.

SNOW-DROPS

Dimly and dumbly under the ground, Groping the walls of their prison round, The roots of the aged and garrulous trees Are sending electrical messages From the under-world to the world without And quickening pulses that course in each Fettered and bound and frozen thing, Rootlets that tremble, and fibres that reach Are pus.h.i.+ng inanimate fingers out, To ask further inarticulate speech For tidings of Spring

And the fine invisible sprite which dwells In cups and discs, in blossoms and bells, Fleeter than Ariel's wing hath flown Beyond this cloudy and frozen zone, To the summer land of the South, Beyond those rugged sentinels Which winter seta in the snow-capped hills, From the breath of whose cruel mouth, Sighing, the leaves in forest and wold, s.h.i.+vered and died in the nights a'cold, Died and were buried under the snow, Long moons ago.

Now over the tropic's broad ellipse The sprite hath pa.s.sed, as fleet and fast As the light of falling stars, that cast A sudden radiance and eclipse; And all the buds that are folded close As the inner leaves of an unblown rose, In bulb, or cone, or scale, or sheath, And sealed with the odorous gums that breathe Like the breath of the singing and sighing pine, When the dews are falling at evening time, Through cone, and sheath, and bulb, and scale-- Tremble, and cry All hail!

And look where a rosier beam hath cleft The damp and fragrant-smelling earth, A handful of snow-drops peeping forth; As if King Winter had dropped and left-- Stumbling and tripping the steep hills down-- Had clutched his robe and dropped his crown: Or as if the very snow had power, Out of itself to fas.h.i.+on a flower; So vase-like, slender, and exquisite, Like an alabaster lamp alit,--

And s.h.i.+ning with a sea-green light, As if it had but newly come Up from some subterranean palace, The haunt of fairy or of gnome, With its waxen taper still alight, And beaming in its leafy chalice, That lit the revellers down below, When the nights were long, and the moon was low You might have heard, far-off and sweet, The sound of the elfin revelries, Like a bugle strain blown over seas, And the patter and beat of dancing feet,-- If you had been like me awake, What time the Great Bear seems to shake, Down through the trackless realms of air, Frost-lances from his s.h.a.ggy hair; And all around--beneath--across, The round globe lies stabbed through with frost.

Now the touches of the sun, Like some potent alchemist, In heat and dews, in rain and mist, As in a subtle menstruum, Hath dissolved the icy charm, And laid on that cold breast of hers,-- Nature's breast--that faintly stirs, With his fragrant kisses warm, Sweet as myrrh and cinnamon,-- Snow-drops, spring's bright harbingers, First-born children of the sun.

Like a sudden burst of leaf and bloom, The sun s.h.i.+nes redly through the gloom, And the wind with its many melodies Hath a murmurous sound like the noise of bees, Singing and humming,--blowing and growing, Of springing blade, and of fountain flowing; And night and silence under the ground Listen--and thrill--and move to the sound, And answer, Spring is coming!

EASTER BELLS