In Memoriam UNIV. OF STRONG Son of God, immortal Love, Thine are these orbs of light and shade; Thou madest man, he knows not why, The highest, holiest manhood, thou: Our wills are ours, we know not how; Our wills are ours, to make them thine. M81819 Our little systems have their day; They have their day and cease to be: Let knowledge grow from more to more, We mock thee when we do not fear; But help thy foolish ones to bear; Help thy vain worlds to bear thy light. Forgive what seem'd my sin in me; What seem'd my worth since I began; For merit lives from man to man, And not from man, O Lord, to thee. Forgive my grief for one removed, Thy creature, whom I found so fair. Forgive these wild and wandering cries, Forgive them where they fail in truth, And in thy wisdom make me wise. HELD it truth, with him who sings To one clear harp in divers tones, That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things. But who shall so forecast the years And find in loss a gain to match? Or reach a hand thro' time to catch The far-off interest of tears? Let Love clasp Grief lest both be drown'd, Let darkness keep her raven gloss: Ah, sweeter to be drunk with loss, To dance with death, to beat the ground, The seasons bring the flower again, And bring the firstling to the flock; O not for thee the glow, the bloom, Nor branding summer suns avail Sick for thy stubborn hardihood, III SORROW, cruel fellowship, O Priestess in the vaults of Death, O sweet and bitter in a breath, What whispers from thy lying lip? 'The stars,' she whispers, 'blindly run; A web is wov'n across the sky; From out waste places comes a cry, And murmurs from the dying sun: 'And all the phantom, Nature, stands- |