HORATIUS BONAR. HORATIUS BONAR. THE INNER CALM. CALM me, my God, and keep me calm, Calm me, my God, and keep me calm, Soft resting on thy breast; Calm me, my God, and keep me calm ; Yes, keep me calm, though loud and rude The sounds my ear that greet, Calm in the hour of buoyant health, Calm in the sufferance of wrong, Like Him who bore my shame, Calm mid the threatening, taunting throng, Who hate Thy holy name; Calm when the great world's news with power My listening spirit stir; Let not the tidings of the hour Calm as the ray of sun or star Which storms assail in vain, Moving unruffled through earth's war, The eternal calm to gain. THE MASTER'S TOUCH. In the still air the music lies unheard; In the rough marble beauty hides unseen: To make the music and the beauty, needs The master's touch, the sculptor's chisel keen. A vicious parent shaming still its child, | Three wives sat up in the lighthouse Poor anxious penitence, is quick dis solved ; Its discords quenched by meeting harmonies, Die in the large and charitable air. That sobbed religiously in yearning song, tower, And they trimmed the lamps as the sun went down, They looked at the squall, and they looked at the shower, And the night rack came rolling up ragged and brown! That watched to ease the burden of the But men must work, and women must That purest heaven,- be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony, Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty, Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, "O MARY, go and call the cattle home, And in diffusion ever more intense! So shall I join the choir invisible, Whose music is the gladness of the world. CHARLES KINGSLEY. [1819-1874.] THE THREE FISHERS. THREE fishers went sailing out into the west, Out into the west as the sun went down ; And call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, Across the sands of Dee"; The western wind was wild and dank wi' foam, And all alone went she. The western tide crept up along the sand, And o'er and o'er the sand, And round and round the sand, As far as eye could see. The rolling mist came down and hid the land, And never home came she. Each thought on the woman who loved "O, is it weed, or fish, or floating hair, him the best, A tress o' golden hair, Was never salmon yet that shone so fair They rowed her in across the rolling foam, The cruel crawling foam, The cruel hungry foam, To her grave beside the sea: Of the shearers that I see, Ne'er a body kens me, But still the boatmen hear her call the Though I kent them a' at Strathairly; cattle home And this fisher-wife I pass, Can she be the braw lass That I kissed at the back of Strathairly! O to call back the days that are not! My eyes were blinded, your words were few: Do you know the truth now up in heaven, Douglas, Douglas, tender and true? I never was worthy of you, Douglas; Not half worthy the like of you: Now all men beside seem to me like shadows, I love you, Douglas, tender and true. Stretch out your hand to me, Douglas, Douglas, Drop forgiveness from heaven like dew; As I lay my heart on your dead heart, Douglas, Douglas, Douglas, tender and true. OUTWARD BOUND. OUT upon the unknown deep, Where the unheard oceans sound, Where the unseen islands sleep, Outward bound. |