Legends and Lyrics, Pt 2 | Page 9

on
Than just one useless pain,

Useless and past for ever;
But noble things remain,
And wait us
all: . . . you too, dear,
Do you think hope quite vain?

All others have forgotten,
'Tis right I should forget,
Nor live on a
keen longing
Which shadows forth regret: . . .
Are not the letters
coming?
The sun is almost set.
Now that my restless legion
Of hopes and fears is fled,
Reading is
joy and comfort . . .
. . .This very day I read,
Oh, such a strange
returning
Of one whom all thought dead!
Not that _I_ dream or fancy,
You know all that is past;
Earth has no
hope to give me,
And yet:- Time flies so fast
That all but the
impossible
Might be brought back at last.
VERSE: IN THE WOOD
In the wood where shadows are deepest
From the branches overhead,

Where the wild wood-strawberries cluster
And the softest moss is
spread,
I met to-day with a fairy,
And I followed her where she led.
Some magical words she uttered,
I alone could understand,
For the
sky grew bluer and brighter;
While there rose on either hand
The
cloudy walls of a palace
That was built in Fairy-land.
And I stood in a strange enchantment;
I had known it all before:
In
my heart of hearts was the magic
Of days that will come no more,

The manic of joy departed,
That Time can never restore.
That never, ah, never, never,
Never again can be:-
Shall I tell you
what powerful fairy
Built up this palace for me?
It was only a little
white Violet
I found at the root of a tree.
VERSE: TWO WORLDS
God's world is bathed in beauty,
God's world is steeped in light;
It
is the self-same glory
That makes the day so bright,

Which thrills
the earth with music,
Or hangs the stars in night.

Hid in earth's mines of silver,
Floating on clouds above, -
Ringing
in Autumn's tempest,
Murmured by every dove;
One thought fills
God's creation -
His own great name of Love!
In God's world Strength is lovely,
And so is Beauty strong,
And
Light--God's glorious shadow -
To both great gifts belong;
And
they all melt into sweetness,
And fill the earth with Song.
Above God's world bends Heaven,
With day's kiss pure and bright,

Or folds her still more fondly
In the tender shade of night;
And she
casts back Heaven's sweetness,
In fragrant love and light.
God's world has one great echo;
Whether calm blue mists are curled,

Or lingering dew-drops quiver,
Or red storms are unfurled;
The
same deep love is throbbing
Through the great heart of God's world.
Man's world is black and blighted,
Steeped through with self and sin;

And should his feeble purpose
Some feeble good begin,
The
work is marred and tainted
By Leprosy within.
Man's world is bleak and bitter;
Wherever he has trod
He spoils the
tender beauty
That blossoms on the sod,
And blasts the loving
Heaven
Of the great, good world of God.
There Strength on coward weakness
In cruel might will roll;
Beauty
and Joy are cankers
That eat away the soul;
And Love--Oh God,
avenge it -
The plague-spot of the whole.
Man's world is Pain and Terror;
He found it pure and fair,
And
wove in nets of sorrow
The golden summer air.
Black, hideous,
cold, and dreary,
Man's curse, not God's, is there.
And yet God's world is speaking:
Man will not hear it call;
But
listens where the echoes
Of his own discords fall,
Then clamours
back to Heaven
That God has done it all.

Oh God, man's heart is darkened,
He will not understand!
Show
him Thy cloud and fire;
And, with Thine own right hand
Then lead
him through his desert,
Back to Thy Holy Land!
VERSE: A NEW MOTHER
I was with my lady when she died:
I it was who guided her weak
hand
For a blessing on each little head,
Laid her baby by her on the
bed,
Heard the words they could not understand.
And I drew them round my knee that night,
Hushed their childish
glee, and made them say
They would keep her words with loving
tears,
They would not forget her dying fears
Lest the thought of her
should fade away.
I, who guessed what her last dread had been,
Made a promise to that
still, cold face,
That her children's hearts, at any cost,
Should be
with the mother they had lost,
When a stranger came to take her
place.
And I knew so much! for I had lived
With my lady since her
childhood: known
What her young and happy days had been,
And
the grief no other eyes had seen
I had watched and sorrowed for
alone.
Ah! she once had such a happy smile!
I had known how sorely she
was tried:
Six short years before, her eyes were bright
As her little
blue-eyed May's that night,
When she stood by her dead mother's
side.
No--I will not say he was unkind;
But she had been used to love and
praise.
He was somewhat grave--perhaps, in truth,
Could not weave
her joyous, smiling youth,
Into all his stern and serious ways.
She, who should have reigned a blooming flower,
First in pride and

honour, as in grace, -
She, whose will had once ruled all around,

Queen and darling of us all--she found
Change indeed in that cold,
stately place.
Yet she would not blame him, even