Lays from the West | Page 7

own dazzling day.
LIFE'S PATHWAY.
We walk among labyrinths of wonder, but tread the mazes with
a club;?We sail in chartless seas, but behold! the Pole-star is above
us--TUPPER.
Life is a pathway, stretched from morn till eve,?O'er which, through shade and sunshine, we must go?And, whether bright or dark this life we live,?Its end must bring us unto joy or woe;?Joy, that no mortal's holiest dreams can know,?Or dread, unending; fearful depths of woe!
This path is fair at morning, wondrous fair;?With verdant windings, hiding from the view?The far-off journey, and what may be there,?Hid by the Future hilltops, high and blue;?And morn's glad sunlight smiles from dazzling skies,?Gilding the path we tread with heaven-lent dyes.
Oh! youth is sweet! for tender hands are near,?And eyes aglow with Love's own magic ray,?Heart meeting heart, each to the other dear--?Through hours that, ere we count them, glide away;?For none can turn to seek a cherished place--?One only life, whose path we can't retrace!
And soon they pass, these meteor joys of earth,?That flash and gleam along the troubled way;?Till wondering wanderers question if their birth?Dawns from a Land that knows no sad decay;?Some sinless region, from whose portals bright?These fleeting rays descent in heavenly light.
Such glorious hues, in golden glory glowing,?When sunrise splendour glads the morning sky;?That bloom awhile, and as they bloom bestowing?Beauty and light, so soon to melt and die,?Leaving a yearning in the darkened heart?To know more closely what we see in part.
The noonday calm, the sunny Summer hours,?The wild-birds' warbled songs, the balmy air;?Life's early pathway strewn with earth's sweet flowers--?Can these be dying things--so bright, so fair??Or lights to lead us o'er a chequered road,?And cheer the shadows to a blest abode?
Oh! spell-bound Fancy fain would wander far,?If we might only break this mortal thrall;?And roam, unshackled, o'er Time's broken bar,?Trace these gleams whose glory lights on all!?Then would we see in all below, above,?The Great Creator's perfect power and love.
Yet in this path that stretched before us lies?We may, as oft with weary feet we tread?Through chequered ways of change, see through the mysteries The living promise from their gleamings shed,?That far from mortal things, and sin, and care,?There is a glorious world, unchanging, fair.
Oh! may we trace in all that lives and grows?The shadows of a perfect life, unseen;?As when some star that in the twilight glows?In mirrored dimly in the water's sheen,?And we can see, in the calm lake's cool breast,?The far-off glow that lingers in the West.
Thus, as we onward go, may thoughts be ours?Whose holy pureness in our souls may raise?An anthem of thanksgiving, till life's hours,?Ending, shall find our hearts' attuned to praise?That Love which cheered us on earth's chequered way,?O'er the long path that led to Cloudless Day!
CLOUDS IN MAY.
"May is here, sweet 'Mois de Marie,' but my sky is?overcast!"--ST. GERMAN.
The hush of twilight, fair and still
Great cloud-ranks, bright with gorgeous dyes?That linger in the Western skies,?Ere Night's deep gloom steals o'er the hill.?The wind sighs softly round the eaves,
The May's fresh sweetness fills the air,?And Peace seems hovering everywhere.?Oh, restless heart, that aches and grieves!--?Grieves when the earth is bright and green,
And Summer's balmy breeze and flowers?Are brightening, charming all the hours?That span the long, long "bridge between"?Dear hopes and their fruition, laid
In many a way, by human plan.?But ah! these dream-world thoughts of man?Soon, soon can droop, and blight and fade!
We know 'tis best. Then wherefore try
To ask whence come the darksome clouds??We know 'tis God's own hand that shroud?Our coming days in mysteries.?"A little while," and there is room
In that bright, blessed land above,?To see, and feel, and taste the love?That sends us now the clouds and gloom.?Why come the clouds? God only knows
Why human hearts need pain and woe;?But Faith's glad gleams still come and go,?Like sunbeams flashing on the snows?Of earth's dark winter-time, and He
Shall smile at last, and frosts shall melt,?And heavenly sunshine shall be felt?When Time fades in Eternity
A FRAGMENT.
"My spirit beats her mortal bars?As down dark tides the glory glides,?Then, star-like, mingles with the stars."--TENNYSON.
Oh, restful peace of night! The balmy air?Laden with myriad sounds of things so fair,?The waving branches, and the leaves' low whispering?The wondrous songs the winding river sings,?That through the meadow-lands and forest ways,?By flowery nooks, and glades, and valleys strays.
Oh! shadowy time of dreams, and mysteries,?And longing hopes! Far in the dark blue skies?The star-worlds glimmer brightly through the night;?The flowers are sleeping that at close of day?Wept dew-tears, as the sun's last fading light?From glen and moor land slowly passed away,?When amorous zephyrs wooed them softly sighing?In odorous breaths, as eve's last glow was dying.
Oh! stars, that through the darkness smile and gleam,?Like glory-rays that gild the dreary gloom,?Or like some soul-world glance or mystic dream?That from the mind's vast store of summer bloom?We feel at times--your influence comes to raise?Our hearts