Only when the sun of love Melts the scattered stars of thought; Only when we live above What the dim-eyed world hath taught; Only when our souls are fed By the Fount which gave them birth, And by inspiration led Which they never drew from earth; We, like parted drops of rain, Melting, flowing into one. C. P. CRANCH. THE PROBLEM. I LIKE a church; I like a cowl; I love a prophet of the soul; Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles; Why should the vest on him allure, Not from a vain or shallow thought Out from the heart of nature rolled The canticles of love and woe; The hand that rounded Peter's dome, And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, Wrought in a sad sincerity; Himself from God he could not free; He builded better than he knew ; The conscious stone to beauty grew. Know'st thou what wove yon woodbird's nest Or how the fish outbuilt her shell, And granted them an equal date These temples grew as grows the grass; And the same power that reared the shrine Ever the fiery Pentecost Girds with one flame the countless host, R. W. EMERSON. "THALATTA!" CRY OF THE TEN THOUSAND. I STAND upon the summit of my years. Behind, the toil, the camp, the march, the strife, The wandering and the desert; vast, afar, Beyond this weary way, behold! the Sea! The sea o'erswept by clouds and winds and wings, A widening heaven, a current without care. BROWNLEE BROWN. As QUA CURSUM VENTUS. S ships, becalmed at eve, that lay With canvas drooping, side by side, Two towers of sail at dawn of day Are scarce long leagues apart descried ; When fell the night, upsprung the breeze, E'en so - but why the tale reveal Of those, whom year by year unchanged, Brief absence joined anew to feel, Astounded, soul from soul estranged? At dead of night their sails were filled, Or wist, what first with dawn appeared! To veer, how vain! On, onward strain, Brave barks! In light, in darkness too, Through winds and tides one compass guides — To that, and your own selves, be true. But O blithe breeze! and O great seas, One port, methought, alike they sought, ARTHUR H. CLOUGH. |