The Stranger. HER door stood open all day long, A stranger halted at the gate One evening and smiled; Said she then: "He for whom I wait He turned from her with wondrous mien, But from afar she saw the sheen Love and the Maidens. He seemed asleep; his wings were wet. Were crowned; and in a silent ring the girls Not one dared wake him-yet each breast So fair. "How will he smile?" thought they, Ere they had touched a feather of his wing. The Common Wealth. O VOICES of the sea and land, How sweet upon my ear you fall ! The curlew's cry, the heron's call, The grey gull's chatter on the strand, The robin on the mossy wall, The coal-tit almost at my handHow I thank Heaven for you all! O wonder of the hills and sky, How dear your beauty to my sight! The wintry noon, the sea's delight, The ruddy moorland far and high, The pendant larch's silver white, The golden wind-blown leaves that lieHow I thank God for all this light! Faces of the Dead. I DREAMED that, wandering by a river's bank, In lifeless waters. Day was dim ;-in dreams He sought to save them both with effort wild Received her, and together they found rest. She sank and loudly wept at her life's gain. 'Twas my dream then that I slept. But when at dawn unto her bed I crept, The child was lost. Her pillow was all wet With tears that still flowed on; and faster yet They flowed in quickening rills, until I thought An unknown sea. The day was sad, tho' young; Upon a misty branch some bird had sung I saw the little daisies on the ground "Come here and look upon these poor drowned men! The ship was sunk a year ago to-day. But I stepped back and shuddering turned away, Yet Fear itself soon drew me with quick breath And there in waters deep I saw them lie, With hands at rest and eyes that sought the sky: Clear eyes wide open to an unseen day. In wondrous silence motionless they lay, With white lips smiling on their spirit's bliss. "Is death but this?" I cried, "no more but this ?" And answer came: "Among those faces there, Are all unknown?" 'Twas then I saw him, fair With perfect peace, my enemy, even he Of all the world who most had tortured me. He lay there, blessed among the blessed, and smiled With eyes more pure than any wakening child. |