[From Bitter-Sweet.] STRENGTH THrough resisTED TEMPTATION. God loves not sin, nor I; but in the throng Of evils that assail us, there are none That yield their strength to Virtue's struggling arm With such munificent reward of power As great temptations. We may win by toil Endurance; saintly fortitude by pain; By sickness, patience; faith and trust by fear; But the great stimulus that spurs to life, And crowds to generous development Each chastened power and passion of the soul, Is the temptation of the soul to sin, Resisted, and reconquered, evermore. [From Bitter-Sweet.] LIFE FROM DEATH. LIFE evermore is fed by death, Something must die. [From Bitter-Sweet.] WORTH AND COST. THUS is it over all the earth! That which we call the fairest, And prize for its surpassing worth, Is always rarest. Iron is heaped in mountain piles, The snowy marble flecks the land The finny armies clog the twine God gives no value unto men Unmatched by meed of labor; And Cost, of Worth, has ever been The closest neighbor. Wide is the gate and broad the way But strait the gate, the path unkind, All common good has common price; And every soul that wins a place Upon its hills of pleasure, Must give its all, and beg for grace To fill the measure. [From Bitter-Sweet.] CRADLE SONG. HITHER, Sleep! a mother wants thee! Bear him into Dreamland lightly! Close his eyes with gentle fingers! I will guard thy spell unbroken Come, then, Sleep! I wait the token Now I see his sweet lips moving; Other milk the babe is proving [From Bitter-Sweet.] TO AN INFANT SLEEPING. SLEEP, babe, the honeyed sleep of innocence! Sleep like a bud; for soon the sun o life With ardors quick and passionat shall rise, And with hot kisses, part the fra grant lips The folded petals of thy soul! Alas! What feverish winds shall tease and toss thee, then! What pride and pain, ambition and despair, Desire, satiety, and all that fill Joy after joy down-fluttering to the earth, To be apportioned to the elements! And save thee from the blight that comes on all. I marvel whether it would not be well That the frail bud should burst in Paradise, On the full throbbing of an angel's heart! First of the three, my darling, Is sacred unto pain; We have hurt each other often: We shall again, Buried, forgiven, before it comes, For our love's sake! The second kiss, my darling, Is full of joy's sweet thrill; We shall reach till we feel each other, In every place; The earth is full of messengers Which love sends to and fro; I kiss thee, darling, for all joy Which we shall know! Through my tears, as I remember What it may be. When we pine because we miss each We may die and never see each other, other, And do not understand. How the written words are so much colder Than eye and hand. I kiss thee, dear, for all such pain Which we may give or take; Die with no time to give Any sign that our hearts are faithful To die, as live. Token of what they will not see Who see our parting breath, This one last kiss, my darling, seals The seal of death! A FAMILY PORTRAIT. GRANDMOTHER's mother: her age I guess, Thirteen summers, or something less; Lips that lover has never kissed; On her hand a parrot green Dark with a century's fringe of Who the painter was none may tell,- Yet in her cheek the hues are bright, Look not on her with eyes of scorn,- And still to the three-hilled rebel town Dear is that ancient name's renown, For many a civic wreath they won, The youthful sire and the gray haired son. O Damsel Dorothy! Dorothy Q.! All my tenure of heart and hand, What if a hundred years ago When forth the tremulous question came That cost the maiden her Norman name, And under the folds that look so still The bodice swelled with the bosom's thrill? Should I be I, or would it be Soft is the breath of a maiden's YES: Not the light gossamer stirs with less; But never a cable that holds so fast Through all the battles of wave and blast, And never an echo of speech or song That lives in the babbling air so long! There were tones in the voice that whispered then You may hear to-day in a hundred men. A goodly record for time to show |