Headlong, stayless, thou wilt fall
Into yonder glowing ball!’
‘Beggar of the universe,
Faithless as an empty purse!
Sent abroad to cool and tame,
Think’st I fear my native flame?’
‘If thou never on thy track
Turn thee round and hie thee back,
Thou wilt wander evermore,
Outcast, cold-a comet hoar!’
‘While I sweep my ring along
In an air of joyous song,
Thou art drifting, heart awry,
From the sun of liberty!’
To be the big Organ below!But the folk come and go,Said the Bell,And you never can tellWhat sort of person the Organ will blow!And, besides, it is much at the mercy of the weatherFor ’tis all made in pieces and glued together!But up in my cellNext door to the sky,Said the Bell,I dwellVery high;And with…
I more of follies than of sins repent,Less for offence than Love’s shortcomings moan.With self, O Father, leave me not alone-Leave not with the beguiler the beguiled;Besmirched and ragged, Lord, take back thine own:A fool I bring thee to be made a child.
There more and less have meanings strange,Which the world cannot rime.Sickness may be more hale than health,And service kingdom high;Yea, poverty be bounty’s wealth,To give like God thereby.Bring forth your riches; let them go,Nor mourn the lost control;For if ye hoard them, surely soTheir rust will reach your soul.Cast in your coins, for God delightsWhen…
When the latch no more doth clickTongue-like in the red peach-wall;When no more come sounds of play,Mice nor children romping roam,Then looks down the eye of dayOn a dead house, not a home!But when, like an old sun’s ghost,Haunts her vault the spectral moon;When earth’s margins all are lost,Melting shapes nigh merged in swoon,Then a…
I batter with the thicknessOf the swathing, blinding shroud:Oh, let me see thy face,The only perfect graceThat thou canst show thy child.0 father, being-giver,Take off the sickness-cloud;Saviour, my life deliverFrom this dull body-shroud:Till I can see thy faceI am not full of grace,I am not reconciled.
Say, ‘God is angry, and I earned it well-I would not have him smile on wickedness:’Say this, and straightway all thy grief grows less:-‘God rules at least, I find as prophets tell,And proves it in this prison!’-then thy cellSmiles with an unsuspected loveliness.-‘A prison-and yet from door and window-barI catch a thousand breaths of his…
