Puslapio vaizdai
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230

THE DESERTED HOUSE.

She vanished, we can scarcely say she died;
For but a now did heaven and earth divide:
She passed serenely with a single breath;
This moment perfect health, the next was death:
One sigh did her eternal bliss assure;

So little penance needs, when souls are almost pure.
As gentle dreams our waking thoughts pursue;
Or, one dream passed, we slide into a new;
So close they follow, such wild order keep,
We think ourselves awake, and are asleep:
So softly death succeeded life in her:

She did but dream of heaven, and she was there.

THE DESERTED HOUSE. - Tennyson.

LIFE and thought have gone away,
Side by side,

Leaving door and windows wide ;
Careless tenants they!

All within is dark as night!
In the windows is no light;
And no murmur at the door,
So frequent on its hinge before.

Close the door, the shutters close,
Or through the windows we shall see
The nakedness and vacancy
Of the dark, deserted house.
Come away! no more of mirth
Is here or merry-making sound;
The house was builded of the earth,
And shall fall again to ground.

Come away! for Life and Thought
Here no longer dwell;
But in a city glorious-

A great and distant city-have bought
A mansion incorruptible.

Would they could have stayed with us!

A PSALM OF LIFE. Longfellow.

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!”
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal; "Dust thou art, to dust returnest," Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us further than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

232

BERMUDAS.

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Act,

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footsteps on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

BERMUDAS. — Marvell.

WHERE the remote Bermudas ride,
In the ocean's bosom unespied ;
From a small boat that rowed along,
The list'ning winds received this song.

"What should we do but sing His praise,
That led us through the watery maze
Unto an isle so long unknown,
And yet far kinder than our own?

Where He the huge sea-monsters wracks,
That lift the deep upon their backs.

He lands us on a glassy stage,
Safe from the storms, and prelate's rage.
He gave us this eternal spring,
Which here enamels everything;
And sends the fowls to us in care,
On daily visits through the air.
He hangs in shades the orange bright,
Like golden lamps in a green night;
And does in the pomegranates close
Jewels more rich than Ormus shows.
He makes the figs our mouths to meet;
And throws the melons at our feet.
But apples plants of such a price,
No tree could ever bear them twice.
With cedars, chosen by His hand
From Lebanon, He stores the land;
And makes the hollow seas, that roar,
Proclaim the Ambergris on shore.
He cast (of which we rather boast)
The gospel's pearl upon our coast;
And in these rocks for us did frame
A temple, where to sound His name.
O, let our voice His praise exalt,
Till it arrive at heaven's vault!
Which, thence (perhaps) rebounding, may
Echo beyond the Mexique bay."

Thus sung they, in the English boat,
An holy and a cheerful note;
And all the way, to guide their chime,
With falling oars they kept the time.

234 TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. -
Keble.

"The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy."-PROVERBS XIV. 10.

WHY should we faint and fear to live alone,
Since all alone so Heaven has willed we die,
Nor even the tenderest heart, and next our own,
Knows half the reasons why we smile or sigh?

Each in its hidden sphere of joy or woe,

Our hermit spirits dwell, and range apart; Our eyes see all around, in gloom or glow, Hues of their own, fresh borrowed from the heart.

And well it is for us our God should feel
Alone our secret throbbings; so our prayer
May readier spring to heaven, nor spend its zeal
On cloud-born idols of this lower air.

For if one heart in perfect sympathy

Beat with another, answering love for love, Weak mortals all entranced on earth would lie, Nor listen for those purer strains above.

Or what if Heaven for once its searching light
Lent to some partial eye, disclosing all
The rude, bad thoughts that in our bosom's night
Wander at large, nor heed Love's gentle thrall?

Who would not shun the dreary, uncouth place?
As if, fond leaning where her infant slept,
A mother's arm a serpent should embrace;
So might we friendless live, and die unwept.

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