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I
SANCTUARY
HOW may one hold these days of wonderment | |
| And bind them into stillness with a thong, | |
| Ere as a fleeting dream they pass along | |
| Into the waste of lovely things forspent; | |
| How may one keep what the Great Powers have sent, | 5 |
| The prayers fulfilled more beautiful and strong | |
| Than any thought could fashion into song | |
| Of all the rarest harmonies inblent? | |
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| There is an Altar where they may be laid | |
| And sealed in Faith within Its sacred care,— | 10 |
| Here they are safe unto the very end; | |
| For these are of the things that never fade, | |
| Brought from the City that is built four-square, | |
| The gifts of Him who is the Perfect Friend. | |
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I
THE LAST SPRING
THE FIRST glad token of the Spring is here | 15 |
| That bears each time one miracle the more, | |
| For in the sunlight is the golden ore, | |
| The joyous promise of a waking year; | |
| And in that promise all clouds disappear | |
| And youth itself comes back as once before, | 20 |
| For only dreams are real in April’s store | |
| When buds are bursting and the skies are clear. | |
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| Fair Season! at your touch the sleeping land | |
| Quickens to rapture, and a rosy flame | |
| Is the old signal of awakening; | 25 |
| Thus in a mystery I understand | |
| The deepest meaning of your lovely name— | |
| How it will be in that perpetual Spring! | |
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III
THE GARDEN
BEHIND the pinions of the Seraphim, | |
| Whose wings flame out upon the swinging spheres, | 30 |
| There is a Voice that speaks the numbered years | |
| Until that Day when all comes back to Him; | |
| Behind the faces of the Cherubim, | |
| Whose smiles of love are seen through broken tears, | |
| There is a Face that every creature fears, | 35 |
| The Face of Love no veil may ever dim. | |
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| O Angels of Glad Laughter and of Song, | |
| Your voices sound so near, the little wall | |
| Can scarcely hide the trees that bend and nod; | |
| Unbar the gate, for you have waited long | 40 |
| To show the Garden that was made for all,— | |
| Where all is safe beneath the Smile of God. | |
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IV
THE PATH OF THE STARS
DOWN through the spheres that chant the Name of One | |
| Who is the Law of Beauty and of Light | |
| He came, and as He came the waiting Night | 45 |
| Shook with the gladness of a Day begun; | |
| And as He came, He said: Thy Will Be Done | |
| On Earth; and all His vibrant Words were white | |
| And glistering with silver, and their might | |
| Was of the glory of a rising sun. | 50 |
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| Unto the Stars sang out His Living Words | |
| White and with silver, and their rhythmic sound | |
| Was as a mighty symphony unfurled; | |
| And back from out the Stars like homing birds | |
| They fell in love upon the sleeping ground | 55 |
| And were forever in a wakened world. | |
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