Peace
Love, poised for ready flight,
Ruddy as morning light,
Bright and as brief his stay;
Hope with alluring wing
Fair as the flowers of spring,
Fleeting as they.
Joy, with elusive gleam,
Flitting o’er life’s dull stream,
Swift as the tides that run:
Flower that a day endures,
False flight the foot that lures,
Gain that no flight secures,
Lost soon as found!
Thou only, calm of mien,
Waitest, with brow serene,
Soft pinions furled in rest;
Fair as thy lilies are,
Shining, a fixed star,
Blessing and blest.
Me in thy still arms lull,
Presence most beautiful!
Captive my soul, release,
On thy breast undefiled,
Safe from life’s tempests wild,
Fold me, a weary child,
Angel of Peace.
Wood-Call
Into the quiet woods
Come from the glare and heat
Of the paven street!
Out of the jar and fret
And the jangling noises!
Here sweet contentment broods;
Here Nature’s voices
Make Memory’s self forget
The cark and care, and lull
Life’s warring sounds to stillness beautiful.
In the leaf-solitudes,
O welcoming woods,
What peace of silence broods!
The silence of soft sounds! The silken sweep
Of winds through branches deep;
The whir of wings; the squirrel’s rustling leap;
The songs of birds-
Those untaught melodies too glad for words;
The water-lullabies; the speech
Of tree and leaf, each whispering to each;
The magic undefined
To heart and mind-
Come to the quiet woods-
The peaceful woods!
At Peace
Shut close the wearied eyes, O Sleep!
So close no dreams may come between,
Of all the sorrows they have seen;
Too long, too sad, their watch hath been.
Be faithful, Sleep:
Lest they should wake-remembering;
Lest they should wake, and waking weep,
O Sleep, sweet Sleep!
Clasp close the wearied hands, O Rest!
Poor hands, so thin and feeble grown
With all the tasks which they have done;
Now they are finished-every one.
O happy Rest,
Fold them at last from laboring,
In quiet on the quiet breast,
O Rest, sweet Rest!
Press close unto her heart, O Death!
So close, not any pulse may stir
The garments of her sepulcher:
Lo, life hath been so sad to her!
O kindest Death,
Within thy safest sheltering
Nor pain nor sorrow entereth-
O Death, sweet Death!
