One day there entered at my chamber door
A presence whose light footfall on the floor
No token gave; and, ere I could withstand,
Within her clasp she drew my trembling hand.
“Intrusive guest,” I cried, “my palm I lend
But to the gracious pressure of a friend!
Why comest thou, unbidden and in gloom,
Trailing thy cold gray garments in my...
Adieu, kind Life, though thou hast often been
Lavish of quip, and scant of courtesy,
Beneath thy roughness I have found in thee
A host who doth my parting favor win.
Friend, teacher, sage, and sometimes harlequin,
Thine every mood hath held some good for me,—
Nor ever friendlier seemed thy company
Than on this night when I must quit thine...
Or, Blessings of To-day
IF we knew the woe and heart-ache
That await us on the road;
If our lips could taste the wormwood,
If our backs could feel the load;
Would we waste to-day in wishing
For a time that ne’er may be?
Would we wait in such impatience
For our ships to come from sea?
If we knew the baby fingers...
A Little elbow leans upon your knee,
Your tired knee that has so much to bear;
A child’s dear eyes are looking lovingly
From underneath a thatch of tangled hair.
Perhaps you do not heed the velvet touch
Of warm, moist fingers, folding yours so tight;
You do not prize this blessing overmuch,—
You almost are too tired to pray to-...
God pity the wretched prisoners,
In their lonely cells to-day!
Whatever the sins that tripped them,
God pity them! still I say.
Only a strip of sunshine,
Cleft by rusty bars;
Only a patch of azure,
Only a cluster of stars;
Only a barren future,
To starve their hope upon;
Only stinging memories...
Sometime, when all life’s lessons have been learned,
And sun and stars forevermore have set,
The things which our weak judgments here have spurned,
The things o’er which we grieved with lashes wet,
Will flash before us, out of life’s dark night,
As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue;
And we shall see how all God’s plans are right,...
