Becko'ning the kneeler to arise and sit
Within the glory which encompassed it :
And when obeyed, the Vision stood beside,
And led the way through the' upper hyaline,
Smiling in beauty tenfold glorified,
Which, while on earth, had seemed enough divine, The beauty of the Spirit-Bride,
Who guided the rapt Florentine.
The depth of human reason must become
As deep as is the holy human heart,
Ere aught in written phrases can impart
The might and meaning of that extasy
To those low souls, who hold the mystery
Of the' unseen universe for dark and dumb.
But we were mortal still, and when again
We raised our bended knees, I do not say
That our descending spirits felt no pain
To meet the dimness of an earthly day;
Yet not as those disheartened, and the more
Debased the higher that they rose before,
But, from the exaltation of that hour,
Out of God's choicest treasu'ry, bringing down
New virtue to sustain all ill,- -new power
To braid Life's thorns into a regal crown,
We past into the outer world, to prove
The strength miraculous of united Love.
STRANGERS yet!
After years of life together,
After fair and stormy weather,
After travel in far lands,
After touch of wedded hands,—
Why thus joined? Why ever met,
If they must be strangers yet?
After childhood's winning ways, After care and blame and praise, Counsel asked and wisdom given, After mutual prayers to Heaven, Child and parent scarce regret When they part-are strangers yet.
After strife for common ends
After title of "old friends,"
After passions fierce and tender, After cheerful self-surrender, Hearts may beat and eyes be met, And the souls be strangers yet.
Oh! the bitter thought to scan
All the loneliness of man :
Nature, by magnetic laws,
Circle unto circle draws,
But they only touch when met,
Never mingle-strangers yet.
Strangers yet!
Will it evermore be thus-
Spirits still impervious?
Shall we never fairly stand
Soul to soul as hand to hand?
Are the bounds eternal set
To retain us—strangers yet?
Tell not Love it must aspire
Unto something other-higher :
God himself were loved the best
Were our sympathies at rest,
Rest above the strain and fret
Of the world of strangers yet!
Strangers yet!
I KNEW that I should be his bride, And to my tearful eyes
Lay that fair future, half descried Through a divine surprise :
I knew that I should be his wife, And that his arm would bend Around me down the walks of life, As friend sustaining friend:
And yet when I beheld him there,
Amid a joyous throng,
Amid the witty and the fair,
Who knew and prized him long,—
Amid the comrades of his youth,
The kinsmen of his line,
I almost faltered at the truth
With which I called him mine.
I saw they thought that I was proud
To claim him as mine own,
While all my being inly bowed
As with a weight unknown.
For if I dared my heart to place
Above its own just meed,
I might be distanced in a race
In which the strong succeed!
But now that years have rolled away,
A variegated stream,
And, one by one, that bright array
Has vanished like a dream;
Now that the very name of wife
Has higher titles earned,
I smile to ponder on that strife
Of feelings undiscerned.
Ah! had I known him but as they,
How weary might have been
The intercourse of every day,
The rarely-changing scene,—
The life that over-long may prove
For passion or for power,
But too, too, short for that still love
Which blesses every hour.
BECAUSE, from all that round Thee move,
Planets of Beauty, Strength, and Grace,
I am elected to Thy love,
And have my home in Thy embrace;
I wonder all men do not see
The crown that Thou hast set on me.
Because, when, prostrate at Thy feet,
Thou didst emparadise my pain,—
Because Thy heart on mine has beat,
Thy head within my hands has lain,
I am transfigured, by that sign,
Into a being like to Thine.
The mirror from its glossy plain
Receiving still returns the light,
And, being generous of its gain,
Augments the very solar might:
What unreflected light would be,
Is just Thy spirit without me.
Thou art the flame, whose rising spire
In the dark air sublimely sways,
And I the tempest that swift fire
Gathers at first and then obeys :
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