Sweet Peace, where dost thou dwell? I humbly crave,
Let me once know.
I sought thee in a secret cave;
And asked if Peace were there.
A hollow wind did seem to answer, “No!
Go, seek elsewhere.”
I did; and, going, did a rainbow note:
“Surely,” thought I,
“This is the lace of Peace’s coat....
IS this the peace of God, this strange sweet calm?
The weary day is at its zenith still,
Yet ’t is as if beside some cool, clear rill,
Through shadowy stillness rose an evening psalm,
And all the noise of life were hushed away,
And tranquil gladness reigned with gently soothing sway.
It was not so just now. I turned aside
With...
There are some hearts like wells, green-mossed and deep
As ever Summer saw;
And cool their water is,—yea, cool and sweet;—
But you must come to draw.
They hoard not, yet they rest in calm content,
And not unsought will give;
They can be quiet with their wealth unspent,
So self-contained they live.
And...
THE Immortal gods
Accept the meanest altars, that are raised
By pure devotion; and sometimes prefer
An ounce of frankincense, honey, or milk,
Before whole hecatombs, or Sabæan gems,
Offered in ostentation.
“Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.”—LAMENTATIONS iii. 54.
ONE day I wandered where the salt sea-tide
Backward had drawn its wave,
And found a spring as sweet as e’er hillside
To wild-flowers gave.
Freshly it sparkled in the sun’s bright look,
And mid its pebbles strayed,
As if it thought...
In the bitter waves of woe,
Beaten and tossed about
By the sullen winds that blow
From the desolate shores of doubt,—
When the anchors that faith had cast
Are dragging in the gale,
I am quietly holding fast
To the things that cannot fail:
I know that right is right;
That it is not good to lie;
That...
The Play is done,—the curtain drops,
Slow falling to the prompter’s bell;
A moment yet the actor stops,
And looks around, to say farewell.
It is an irksome word and task;
And, when he ’s laughed and said his say,
He shows, as he removes the mask,
A face that ’s anything but gay.
One word, ere yet the evening ends,—...
From “In Memoriam,” CV.
RING out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night—
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new—
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
...
It is not life upon thy gifts to live,
But to grow fixed with deeper roots in Thee;
And when the sun and showers their bounties give,
To send out thick-leaved limbs; a fruitful tree
Whose green head meets the eye for many a mile,
Whose spreading boughs a friendly shelter rear,
And full-faced fruits their blushing welcome smile
As to its...
From “Paradise Lost,” Book I.
OF man’s first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That...
