From the German by William Johnson Fox
FLUNG to the heedless winds,
Or on the waters cast,
The martyrs’ ashes, watched,
Shall gathered be at last;
And from that scattered dust,
Around us and abroad,
Shall spring a plenteous seed
Of witnesses for God.
The Father hath received
Their latest living breath;...
Give me my scallop-shell of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation,
My gown of glory, hope’s true gauge;
And thus I ’ll take my pilgrimage!
Blood must be my body’s balmer,
No other balm will there be given;
Whilst my soul, like quiet palmer,
Travelleth towards...
In the still air the music lies unheard;
In the rough marble beauty hides unseen:
To make the music and the beauty, needs
The master’s touch, the sculptor’s chisel keen.
Great Master, touch us with thy skilful hand;
Let not the music that is in us die!
Great Sculptor, hew and polish us; nor let,
Hidden and lost, thy form within...
From “Paradise Lost,” Book V.
THE SERAPH Abdiel, faithful found
Among the faithless, faithful only he;
Among innumerable false, unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;
Nor number, nor example with him wrought
To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Though single. From...
Fever and fret and aimless stir
And disappointed strife,
All chafing, unsuccessful things,
Make up the sum of life.
Love adds anxiety to toil,
And sameness doubles cares,
While one unbroken chain of work
The flagging temper wears.
The light and air are dulled with smoke:
The streets resound with noise;...
“When thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee.”—JOHN i. 48.
I SAW thee when, as twilight fell,
And evening lit her fairest star,
Thy footsteps sought yon quiet dell,
The world’s confusion left afar.
I saw thee when thou stood’st alone,
Where drooping branches thick o’erhung,
Thy still retreat to all unknown,
Hid in deep...
Shun delayes, they breed remorse,
Take thy time while time doth serve thee,
Creeping snayles have weakest force,
Flie their fault, lest thou repent thee.
Good is best when soonest wrought,
Lingering labours come to nought.
Hoyse up sayle while gale doth last,
Tide and winde stay no man’s pleasure;
Seek not time when time...
Dear, secret greenness! nurst below
Tempests and winds and winter nights!
Vex not, that but One sees thee grow;
That One made all these lesser lights.
What needs a conscience calm and bright
Within itself, an outward test?
Who breaks his glass, to take more light,
Makes way for storms into his rest.
Then bless...
She hath no beauty in her face
Unless the chastened sweetness there,
And meek long-suffering, yield a grace
To make her mournful features fair:—
Shunned by the gay, the proud, the young,
She roams through dim, unsheltered ways;
Nor lover’s vow, nor flatterer’s tongue
Brings music to her sombre days:—
At best her skies...
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,...
