Bees in Amber

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Title: Bees in Amber
A Little Book Of Thoughtful Verse
Author: John Oxenham
Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9989]?[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]?[This file was first posted on November 6, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEES IN AMBER ***
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci?and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
BEES IN AMBER
A LITTLE BOOK OF THOUGHTFUL VERSE
BY JOHN OXENHAM
1913
TO THOSE I HOLD DEAREST
THIS OF MY BEST.
CONTENTS
CREDO
NEW YEAR'S DAY AND EVERYDAY
PHILOSOPHER'S GARDEN
FLOWERS OF THE DUST
THE PILGRIM WAY
EVERYMAID
BETTER AND BEST
THE SHADOW
THE POTTER
NIGHTFALL
THE PRUNER
THE WAYS
SEEDS
WHIRRING WHEELS
THE BELLS OF YS
THE LITTLE POEM OF LIFE
CUP OF MIXTURE
WEAVERS ALL
THE CLEARER VISION
SHADOWS
THE INN OF LIFE
LIFE'S CHEQUER-BOARD
CROSS-ROADS
QUO VADIS?
TAMATE
BURDEN-BEARERS
THE IRON FLAIL
SARK
E.A.
THE PASSING OF THE QUEEN
THE GOLDEN CORD
THANK GOD FOR PEACE!
GOD'S HANDWRITING
STEPHEN--SAUL
PAUL
WAKENING
MACEDONIA, 1903
HEARTS IN EXILE
WANDERED
BIDE A WEE!
THE WORD THAT WAS LEFT UNSAID
DON'T WORRY!
THE GOLDEN ROSE
GADARA, A.D. 31
THE BELLS OF STEPAN ILINE
BOLT THAT DOOR!
GIANT CIRCUMSTANCE
THE HUNGRY SEA
WE THANK THEE, LORD
THE VAIL
NO EAST OR WEST
THE DAY--THE WAY
LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY
FREEMEN
THE LONG ROAD
THE CHRIST
THE BALLAD OF LOST SOULS
PROFIT AND LOSS
FREE MEN OF GOD
TREASURE-TROVE
THE GATE
BRING US THE LIGHT
ALL'S WELL!
HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOR EVER
GOD IS GOOD
SOME--AND SOME
THE PRINCE OF LIFE
JUDGMENT DAY
DARKNESS AND LIGHT
INDIA
LIVINGSTONE
LIVINGSTONE THE BUILDER
LIVINGSTONE'S SOLILOQUY
KAPIOLANI
THEY COME!
PROCESSIONALS
FAITH
"I WILL!"
A LITTLE TE DEUM OF THE COMMONPLACE
POLICEMAN X
YOUR PLACE
IN NARROW WAYS
SHUT WINDOWS
PROPS
BED-ROCK
AFTER WORK
KAPIOLANI IN RAROTONGAN
AUTHOR'S APOLOGY
In these rushful days an apology is advisable, if not absolutely essential, from any man, save the one or two elect, who has the temerity to publish a volume of verse.
These stray lines, such as they are, have come to me from time to time, I hardly know how or whence; certainly not of deliberate intention or of malice aforethought. More often than not they have come to the interruption of other, as it seemed to me, more important--and undoubtedly more profitable--work.
They are for the most part, simply attempts at concrete and rememberable expression of ideas--ages old most of them--which "asked for more."
Most writers, I imagine, find themselves at times in that same predicament--worried by some thought which dances within them and stubbornly refuses to be satisfied with the sober dress of prose. For their own satisfaction and relief, in such a case, if they be not fools they endeavour to garb it more to its liking, and so find peace. Or, to vary the metaphor, they pluck the Bee out of their Bonnet and pop it into such amber as they happen to have about them or are able to evolve, and so put an end to its buzzing.
In their previous states these little Bonnet-Bees of mine have apparently given pleasure to quite a number of intelligent and thoughtful folk; and now--chiefly, I am bound to say, for my own satisfaction in seeing them all together--I have gathered?them into one bunch.
If they please you--good! If not, there is no harm done, and one man is content.
JOHN OXENHAM
CREDO
Not what, but WHOM, I do believe,
That, in my darkest hour of need,?Hath comfort that no mortal creed?To mortal man may give;--?Not what, but WHOM!
For Christ is more than all the creeds,?And His full life of gentle deeds?Shall all the creeds outlive.?Not what I do believe, but WHOM!
WHO walks beside me in the gloom??WHO shares the burden wearisome??WHO all the dim way doth illume,?And bids me look beyond the tomb?The larger life to live?--?Not what I do believe,?BUT WHOM!?Not what,?But WHOM!
NEW YEAR'S DAY--AND EVERY DAY
_Each man is Captain of his Soul,?And each man his own Crew,?But the Pilot knows the Unknown Seas,?And He will bring us through_.
We break new seas to-day,--?Our eager keels quest unaccustomed waters,?And, from the vast uncharted waste in front,?The mystic circles leap?To greet our prows with mightiest possibilities;?Bringing us--what??--Dread shoals and shifting banks??--And calms and storms??--And clouds and biting gales??--And wreck and loss??--And valiant fighting-times??And, maybe, Death!--and so, the Larger Life!
_For should the Pilot deem it best?To cut the voyage short,?He sees beyond the sky-line, and?He'll bring us into Port_.
And, maybe, Life,--Life on a bounding tide,
And chance of