Making Poetry
Making Poetry Little one, what are you doing,Sitting on the window-seat?Laughing to yourself, and wirting,Some right merry thought inditing,Balancing with swinging feet. T is some poetry I’m making,Though I never tried before:Four whole lines! I’ll read them to you.Do you think them funny, do you?Shall I try to make some more? I should like to […]
Compensation
Compensation Oh, the compensating springs! Oh, the balance-wheels of life,Hidden away in the workings under the seeming strife! Oh, the compensating springs! Oh, the balance-wheels of life,Hidden away in the workings under the seeming strife!Slowing the fret and the friction, weighting the whirl and the force,Evolving the truest power from each unconscious source. How shall […]
The Seeing Heart*
The Seeing Heart* Sweet, blind singer over the sea,Tuneful and jubilant: how can it be, Sweet, blind singer over the sea,Tuneful and jubilant: how can it be,That the songs of gladness, which float so far,As if they fell from the evening star,Are the notes of one who may never see“Visible music” of flower and tree,Purple […]
A Birthday-Greeting To My Father
A Birthday-Greeting To My Father ‘Tis fully known to ONE, by us yet dimly seen,The blessing thou HAST BEEN; ‘Tis fully known to ONE, by us yet dimly seen,The blessing thou HAST BEEN;Yet speaks the silent love of many a mourning heartThe blessing that thou ART;While traced on coming years, in faith and hope we […]
Faith and Reason
Faith and Reason Reason unstrings the harp to seeWherein the music dwells; Reason unstrings the harp to seeWherein the music dwells;Faith pours a Hallelujah song,And heavenly rapture swells.While Reason strives to count the dropsThat lave our narrow strand,Faith launches o’er the mighty deep,To seek a better land. One is the foot that slowly treadsWhere darkling […]
My Name*
My Name From childish days I never heardMy own baptismal name; From childish days I never heardMy own baptismal name;Too small, too slight, too full of gleeAught else but “little Fan” to be,The stately “Frances” not in meCould any fitness claim. Now, in the crowded halls of life,May it be mine to bringSome gentle stir […]
Our Gem Wreath
Our Gem Wreath Heard ye the sounds of joyous gleeAnd the notes of merry minstrelsy, Heard ye the sounds of joyous gleeAnd the notes of merry minstrelsy,And the purling of low, sweet words which startFrom the silent depths of a loving heart; And the gushing laugh, and the rippling song,As the summer days sped swift […]
New Year’s Wishes
New Year’s Wishes A pearl-strewn pathway of untold gladness,Flecked by no gloom, by no weary sadness, A pearl-strewn pathway of untold gladness,Flecked by no gloom, by no weary sadness,Such be the year to thee!A crystal rivulet, sunlight flinging,Awakening blossoms, and joyously singingIts own calm melody. A symphony soft, and sweet, and low,Like the gentlest music […]
Traveling Thoughts
Traveling Thoughts A still gray haze around us,Behind, a foreign shore, A still gray haze around us,Behind, a foreign shore,A still gray deep beneath us,And Dover cliffs before.Not one within a hundred milesWhose name I ever heard,None who would care to speak to meA passing friendly word:Yet not a shadow crosseth meOf loneliness or fear;I […]
How Should They Know Me?
How Should They Know Me? There are those who deem they know me well,And smile as I tell them “nay!” There are those who deem they know me well,And smile as I tell them “nay!”Who think they may clearly and carelessly tellEach living drop in my heart’s deep well,And lightly enter its inmost cell;But little […]
On the Last Leaf*
On the Last Leaf* Finished at last!Yet for five years past My book on the dusty shelf hath lain,And I hardly thought that ever again My thoughts would follow the pleasant chimeOf musical measure and ringing rhyme. I remember well when I laid it by,Closed with a sort of requiem sigh.S pring in her beauty […]
Remote Results
Remote Results Where are the countless crystals,So perfect and so bright, Where are the countless crystals,So perfect and so bright,That robed in softest ermineThe winter day and night?Not lost! for, life to many a foot,They rise again in flower and fruit. Where are the mighty forests,And giant ferns of old,That in primeval silenceStrange leaf and […]
Wait Patiently For Him
Wait Patiently For Him God doth not bid thee waitTo disappoint at last; God doth not bid thee waitTo disappoint at last;A golden promise, fair and great,In precept-mould is cast.Soon shall the morning gildThe dark horizon-rim,Thy heart’s desire shall be fulfilled,“Wait patiently for Him.” The weary waiting timesAre but the muffled pealsLow preluding celestial chimes,That […]
Christ’s Recall
Christ’s Recall Return!O wanderer from My side! Return!O wanderer from My side!Soon droops each blossom of the darkening wild,Soon melts each meteor which thy steps beguiled,Soon is the cistern dry which thou hast hewn,And thou wilt weep in bitterness full soon.Return! ere gathering night shall shroud the wayThy footsteps yet may tread, in this accepted […]
Yesterday, To-Day, and Forever
Yesterday, To – Day, and Forever Ah! the weary cares and fears,Earnest yearnings through the years! Ah! the weary cares and fears,Earnest yearnings through the years!Is it not a vale of tears? Ah! the love we gladly greetEver now is incomplete;If the melody be sweet, And the harmony be true,Earlier loss is more in view,Ill […]
No Thorn Without a Rose
No Thorn Without a Rose “There is no rose without a thorn!”Who has not found this true, “There is no rose without a thorn!”Who has not found this true,And known that griefs of gladness bornOur footsteps still pursue! That in the grandest harmonyThe strangest discords rise;The brightest bow we only traceUpon the darkest skies! No […]
Light and Shade
Light and Shade Light! emblem of all good and joy!Shade! emblem of all ill! Light! emblem of all good and joy!Shade! emblem of all ill!And yet in this strange mingled life,We need the shadow still.A lamp with softly shaded light,To soothe and spare the tender sight,Will only throwA brighter glowUpon our books and work below. […]
Silent in Love
Silent in Love Love culminates in bliss when it doth reachA white, unflickering, fear consuming glow; Love culminates in bliss when it doth reachA white, unflickering, fear consuming glow;And, knowing it is known as it doth know,Needs no assuring word or soothing speech. It craves but silent nearness, so to rest,No sound, no movement, love […]
Disappointment
Disappointment Our yet unfinished storyIs tending all to this: Our yet unfinished storyIs tending all to this:To God the greatest glory,To us the greatest bliss. If all things work togetherFor ends so grand and blest,What need to wonder whetherEach in itself is best! If some things were omittedOr altered as we would,The whole might be […]
Coming Summer
Coming Summer What will the summer bring?Sunshine and flowers, What will the summer bring?Sunshine and flowers,Brightness and melody,Golden voiced hours;Rose-gleaming morningsVocal with praise;Crimson-flushed evenings,Nightingale lays. What may the summer bring?Gladness and mirth,Laughter and song,For the children of earth;Smiles for the old man,Joy for the strong,Glee for the little ones,All the day long. What will the […]
Treasure-Trove
Treasure-Trove I played with the whispering rushes,By a river of reverie, I played with the whispering rushes,By a river of reverie,Flowing so quietly onwardInto an unknown sea. And I watched the dreamy current,Till to my feet it brought,Glistening among the pebbles,The pearl of a fair new thought. New! yet many another,Leaning over the stream,May have […]
Misunderstood
Misunderstood “People do not understand me,Their ideas are not like mine; “People do not understand me,Their ideas are not like mine;All advances seem to land me,Still outside their guarded shrine.” So you turn from simple joyance,Losing many a mutual good,Weary with the chill annoyance,So to be misunderstood. Let me try to lift the curtainHiding other […]
Content
Content “What wouldst thou be?’A wavelet just rising from life’s “What wouldst thou be?’A wavelet just rising from life’swide sea.I would I were once again a child,Like a laughing floweret on mountains wild;In the fairy realms of fancy dwelling,The golden moments for sunbeams selling;Ever counting on bright to-morrows,And knowing naught of unspoken sorrows:Such would I […]
Auntie’s Lessons
Auntie’s Lessons They said their texts, and their hymnsthey sang They said their texts, and their hymns they sangOn that sunny Sabbath day;And yet there was time ere the church-bell rang,So I bid them trot away,And leave me to rest and read alone,Where the ash-tree’s shade o’er the lawn wasthrown. But oh! ’twas a cry […]
Be Not Weary
Be Not Weary Yes! He knows the way is dreary,Knows the weakness of our frame, Yes! He knows the way is dreary,Knows the weakness of our frame,Knows that hand and heart are weary;He, “in all points,” felt the same.He is near to help and bless;Be not weary, onward press. Look to Him who once was […]
Wounded
Wounded Only a look and a motion that nobody saw or heard. Only a look and a motion that nobody saw or heard.Past in a moment and over, with never the sound of a word;Streams of converse around me smoothly and cheerily flow,But a terrible stab has been given, a silent and staggering blow. Guesses the […]
Life-Crystals
Life-Crystals The world is full of crystals. Swift, or slow, The world is full of crystals. Swift, or slow,Or dark, or bright their varying formation;From pure calm heights of fair untrodden snowTo fire-wrought depths of earliest creation.And life is full of crystals; forming stillIn myriad-shaped results from good and seeming ill. Yes! forming everywhere; in […]
Our Hidden Leaves
Our Hidden Leaves Oh the hidden leaves of Life!Closely folded in the heart; Oh the hidden leaves of Life!Closely folded in the heart;Leaves where Memory’s golden finger,Slowly pointing, loves to linger;Leaves that bid the old tears start. Leaves where Hope would read the future,Sibylline, and charged with fate:Leaves which calm Submission closeth,While her tearless eye […]
The Ministry of Song
The Ministry of Song Amid the broken waters of our ever-restless thought,Oh be my verse an answering gleam from highter radiance caught;That where through dark o’er-arching boughs of sorrow, doubt, and sin,The glorious Star of Bethlehem upon the flood looks in,Its tiny trembling ray may bid some downcast vision turnTo that enkindling Light, for which […]
The Turned Lesson
The Turned Lesson “I thought I knew it!” she said;“I thought I had learnt it quite!” “I thought I knew it!” she said;“I thought I had learnt it quite!”But the gentle teacher shook her head,With a grave, yet loving lightIn the eyes that fell on the upturned face,As she gave the bookWith the mark still […]
Daily Strength
Daily Strength “As thy day thy strength shall be!”This should be enough for thee; “As thy day thy strength shall be!”This should be enough for thee;He who knows thy frame will spareBurdens more than thou canst bear. When thy days are veiled in night,Christ shall give thee heavenly light;Seem they wearisome and long,Yet in Him […]