The Embers | Page 8

good;
I f I had spoken it--that message of the
stars--
Love would have filled thy blood;
Love would have sent thee pulsing to
my arms,
Laughing with joy, thy heart a nestling
bird
An instant passed--it fled; and now I
seek in vain
For that forgotten word.
WHAT WILL IT MATTER?
What will this matter, dear, when you
and I
Have left our sad world for some fairer
sky?
What will it matter, dear, when, far
apart,
We miss the touch of hand and beat of
heart;
When one's at peace, while unto one is

given
With lonely feet to walk the hills at
even?
What will it matter that one fault more
now
Brings clouds upon one eager mortal
brow,
That one grace less is given to one poor
soul,
When both drink from the last immortal
bowl?
For fault and grace, dear love, when
we go hence
Will find the same Eternal recompense.
THE COURIER STAR
Into a New World wandered I,
A strong vast realm afar;
And down the white peaks of its sky,
Beckoned my courier star.

It hailed me to mine ancient North,--
The meadows of the Pole;
It whistled my gay hunters forth,
It bugled in my soul.
On plateaux of the constant snow
I heard the meteors whir;
I saw the red wolves nor'ward go
From my low huts of fir.

The dun moose ran the deep ravine,