A Hidden Life Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFCGHIJ KLMNOPQJRSFTB UVWXYZA2B2B2C2D2E2F2 G2H2B2 I2IJ2K2L2M2N2YO2SP2Q 2FR2B2S2T2R2F2 B2U2V2W2B2JB2X2KU2IA 2 W2R2Y2U2Z2A3XXB3C3 N2F2WD3E3F3G3A3X2B2H 3I3IJ3K3W2L3M3N3O3M3 P3Q3R3H3S3IT3U2U3 F3F2V3W3B2X3 B2N3Y3Z3B2A4A2F2T2B4 E3V2C4B2D4E4F4F2CKK3 IIE3V3A2G4H4F3I4B2J4 G4B2B2L3K4L4G4B2B2M4 ICB4 N4O4P4Y3Q4P4B2LR4S4K SB2IT4B2OHB2U4P3V4J4 W4AX4FT3B2B2S2B2Y4Z3 Z4 IT2IN2S2B2K IXUR2L3OT3W3SB2L3E3F 2Z2I B2F2L4SB2B2CB2A3FB2B 2B2IT2FQ3CKL3 N2L2I F3W KCT2N3B2Q3T2B2B2IF2T 2T3L2N3AIIB2 KZ2L3T2W4H4H3K T3KA2OIN2B2B2B2H3B2L FF3W3IT3KF IL2F3B2U3O2Z3U2C B2B2LU2A2 B2B2TE3B2N2IF2J2N3O4 O4SB2S4 FS4O4Q3P3B2O4CH4 X2U3P3G3O4IPF2O4N4O4 F2 O4U2T2N4Y4B2J2B2B2FI U3P3T2N4B2O4L3O4FT2B 2 O3P3O4J2O3F2B2B2O3O4 B2O4B2IZ3H4IB2O4O4O2 Z2Z2T2A2CO4O4N2L3 IB2B2U3O4B2B2O4O4SO4 J2IIO4O4O4B2O4J2J2 J2J2J2WO4J2IJ2KO4J2K J2O4J2B2J2J2O4L4O4O4 T3O4B2IJ2KJ2F2 O4F3O4B2IJ2J2B2B2O4J 2O4O4O4J2J2J2F2O4IO4 IJ2B2B2O4O4IJ2F2J2IJ 2S3IB2IO4KJ2P4J2KB2O 4O4J2J2J2J2B2J2O4B2O 4J2J2O4J2J2 F2J2J2O4F3J2T3J2IJ2O 4O4I IJ2F2B2O4O4J2J2B2J2F 3J2B2KO4KJ2J2O4O4J2J 2O4J2SJ2J2IJ2O4J2J2O 4T2O4KJ2J2IJ2O4J2J2O 4T2B2O4T2IKJ2 IT2O4E2IJ2B2O4J2I J2J2J2O4O4P2J2B2J2IJ 2SJ2 B2J2J2IB2O4O4IJ2O4J2 J2O4O4O4J2J2J2IO4Z3K KB2 J2O4J2J2KT2IJ2B2O4 J2IO4J2WB2O4O4J2J2J2 B2KB2O4B2F3KJ2KO4IJ2 J2B2O4J2O4B2O4O4B2 T2J2B2IJ2 B2J2T2J2 J2J2O4O4T3J2SO4 Z3J2IJ2B2J2O4B2K O4B2I O4O4B2IIO4O4B2J2KIJ2 J2O4 KJ2J2IJ2 J2IZ3B2J2B2O4J2B2J2O 4O4J2B2B2B2O4KJ2I O4O4J2J2B2O4O4O4O4O4 J2KO4O4 J2O4B2O4O4KJ2O4B2O4J 2 J2J2J2J2J2B2T2J2J2J2 T2T2J2O4J2B2J2 B2J2 O4O4B2 J2J2J2J2O4O4O4O4IJ2O 4J2J2KKI J2IJ2B2J2KJ2J2J2O4J2 J2T2IJ2J2 KB2B2J2O4J2J2S3J2 O4O4O4J2B2O4KO4J2J2K Z3J2KO4J2J2O4 O4O4B2J2 O4J2O4J2O4 B2J2O4O4T2B2J2 O4IO4O4T2J2O4J2IJ2J2 B2J2J2T2O4K J2J2B2T2 J2O4B2IJ2KJ2O4IJ2J2O 4B2J2 B2J2J2 B2J2B2O4B2J2J2J2B2O4 J2 KO4B2B2J2J2I J2IJ2J2J2IO4O4T2O4J2 O4J2J2J2O4I S3J2S3 B2J2O4B2J2J2B2O4 KJ2 J2IO4IO4J2O4J2J2J2J2 O4J2B2J2J2IB2B2KO4B2 J2J2J2J2J2J2J2T2J2 IKO4 O4J2J2J2B2J2B2 T2J2B2IJ2J2B2 O4J2T2O4B2O4J2O4O4KI J2J2IB2O4J2J2J2O4IJ2 O4

Proudly the youth sudden with manhood crowned	A
Went walking by his horses the first time	B
That morning to the plough No soldier gay	C
Feels at his side the throb of the gold hilt	D
Knowing the blue blade hides within its sheath	E
As lightning in the cloud with more delight	F
When first he belts it on than he that day	C
Heard still the clank of the plough chains against	G
His horses' harnessed sides as to the field	H
They went to make it fruitful O'er the hill	I
The sun looked down baptizing him for toil	J
	-
A farmer's son a farmer's grandson he	K
Yea his great grandsire had possessed those fields	L
Tradition said they had been tilled by men	M
Who bore the name long centuries ago	N
And married wives and reared a stalwart race	O
And died and went where all had followed them	P
Save one old man his daughter and the youth	Q
Who ploughs in pride nor ever doubts his toil	J
And death is far from him this sunny morn	R
Why should we think of death when life is high	S
The earth laughs all the day and sleeps all night	F
The daylight's labour and the night's repose	T
Are very good each better in its time	B
	-
The boy knew little but he read old tales	U
Of Scotland's warriors till his blood ran swift	V
As charging knights upon their death career	W
He chanted ancient tunes till the wild blood	X
Was charmed back into its fountain well	Y
And tears arose instead That poet's songs	Z
Whose music evermore recalls his name	A2
His name of waters babbling as they run	B2
Rose from him in the fields among the kine	B2
And met the skylark's raining from the clouds	C2
But only as the poet birds he sang	D2
From rooted impulse of essential song	E2
The earth was fair he knew not it was fair	F2
His heart was glad he knew not it was glad	G2
He walked as in a twilight of the sense	H2
Which this one day shall turn to tender morn	B2
	-
Long ere the sun had cleared the feathery tops	I2
Of the fir thicket on the eastward hill	I
His horses leaned and laboured Each great hand	J2
Held rein and plough stilt in one guiding grasp	K2
No ploughman there would brook a helper Proud	L2
With a true ploughman's pride nobler I think	M2
Than statesman's ay or poet's or painter's pride	N2
For little praise will come that he ploughs well	Y
He did plough well proud of his work itself	O2
And not of what would follow With sure eye	S
He saw his horses keep the arrow track	P2
He saw the swift share cut the measured sod	Q2
He saw the furrow folding to the right	F
Ready with nimble foot to aid at need	R2
Turning its secrets upward to the sun	B2
And hiding in the dark the sun born grass	S2
And daisies dipped in carmine lay the tilth	T2
A million graves to nurse the buried seed	R2
And send a golden harvest up the air	F2
	-
When the steep sun had clomb to his decline	B2
And pausing seemed at edge of slow descent	U2
Upon the keystone of his airy bridge	V2
They rested likewise half tired man and horse	W2
And homeward went for food and courage new	B2
Therewith refreshed they turned again to toil	J
And lived in labour all the afternoon	B2
Till in the gloaming once again the plough	X2
Lay like a stranded bark upon the lea	K
And home with hanging neck the horses went	U2
Walking beside their master force by will	I
Then through the lengthening shades a vision came	A2
	-
It was a lady mounted on a horse	W2
A slender girl upon a mighty steed	R2
That bore her with the pride horses must feel	Y2
When they submit to women Home she went	U2
Alone or else her groom lagged far behind	Z2
Scarce had she bent simple acknowledgment	A3
Of the hand in silent salutation lifted	X
To the bowed head when something faithless yielded	X
The saddle slipped the horse stopped and the girl	B3
Stood on her feet still holding fast the reins	C3
	-
Three paces bore him bounding to her side	N2
Her radiant beauty almost fixed him there	F2
But with main force as one that grapples fear	W
He threw the fascination off and saw	D3
The work before him Soon his hand and knife	E3
Had set the saddle firmer than before	F3
Upon the gentle horse and then he turned	G3
To mount the maiden But bewilderment	A3
A moment lasted for he knew not how	X2
With stirrup hand and steady arm to throne	B2
Elastic on her steed the ascending maid	H3
A moment only for while yet she thanked	I3
Nor yet had time to teach her further will	I
About her waist he put his brawny hands	J3
That all but zoned her round and like a child	K3
Lifting her high he set her on the horse	W2
Whence like a risen moon she smiled on him	L3
Nor turned aside although a radiant blush	M3
Shone in her cheek and shadowed in her eyes	N3
And he was never sure if from her heart	O3
Or from the rosy sunset came the flush	M3
Again she thanked him while again he stood	P3
Bewildered in her beauty Not a word	Q3
Answered her words that flowed folded in tones	R3
Round which dissolving lambent music played	H3
Like dropping water in a silver cup	S3
Till round the shoulder of the neighbouring hill	I
Sudden she disappeared And he awoke	T3
And called himself hard names and turned and went	U2
After his horses bending like them his head	U3
	-
Ah God when Beauty passes from the door	F3
Although she came not in the house is bare	F2
Shut shut the door there's nothing in the house	V3
Why seems it always that she should be ours	W3
A secret lies behind which thou dost know	B2
And I can partly guess	X3
	-
But think not then	B2
The holder of the plough sighed many sighs	N3
Upon his bed that night or other dreams	Y3
Than pleasant rose upon his view in sleep	Z3
Nor think the airy castles of his brain	B2
Had less foundation than the air admits	A4
But read my simple tale scarce worth the name	A2
And answer if he had not from the fair	F2
Beauty's best gift and proved her not in sooth	T2
An angel vision from a higher world	B4
	-
Not much of her I tell Her glittering life	E3
Where part the waters on the mountain ridge	V2
Ran down the southern side away from his	C4
It was not over blessed for I know	B2
Its tale wiled many sighs one summer eve	D4
From her who told and him who in the pines	E4
Walking received it from her loving lips	F4
But now she was as God had made her ere	F2
The world had tried to spoil her tried I say	C
And half succeeded failing utterly	K
Fair was she frank and innocent as a child	K3
That looks in every eye fearless of ill	I
Because she knew it not and brave withal	I
Because she led a simple country life	E3
And loved the animals Her father's house	V3
A Scottish laird was he of ancient name	A2
Was distant but two miles among the hills	G4
Yet oft as she had passed his father's farm	H4
The youth had never seen her face before	F3
And should not twice Yet was it not enough	I4
The vision tarried She as the harvest moon	B2
That goeth on her way and knoweth not	J4
The fields of corn whose ripening grain she fills	G4
With strength of life and hope and joy for men	B2
Went on her way and knew not of the virtue	B2
Gone out of her yea never thought of him	L3
Save at such times when all at once old scenes	K4
Return uncalled with wonder that they come	L4
Soon was she orphaned of her sheltering hills	G4
And rounded with dead glitter not the shine	B2
Of leaves and waters dancing in the sun	B2
While he abode in ever breaking dawns	M4
Breathed ever new born winds into his soul	I
And saw the aurora of the heavenly day	C
Still climb the hill sides of the heapy world	B4
	-
Again I say no fond romance of love	N4
No argument of possibilities	O4
If he were some one and she sought his help	P4
Turned his clear brain into a nest of dreams	Y3
As soon he had sat down and twisted cords	Q4
To snare and carry home for household help	P4
Some woman angel wandering half seen	B2
On moonlight wings o'er withered autumn fields	L
But when he rose next morn and went abroad	R4
The exultation of his new found rank	S4
Already settling into dignity	K
Behold the earth was beautiful The sky	S
Shone with the expectation of the sun	B2
Only the daisies grieved him for they fell	I
Caught in the furrow with their innocent heads	T4
Just out imploring A gray hedgehog ran	B2
With tangled mesh of rough laid spikes and face	O
Helplessly innocent across the field	H
He let it run and blessed it as it ran	B2
Returned at noon tide something drew his feet	U4
Into the barn entering he gazed and stood	P3
For through the rent roof lighting one sunbeam	V4
Blazed on the yellow straw one golden spot	J4
Dulled all the amber heap and sinking far	W4
Like flame inverted through the loose piled mound	A
Crossed the keen splendour with dark shadow straws	X4
In lines innumerable 'Twas so bright	F
His eye was cheated with a spectral smoke	T3
That rose as from a fire He had not known	B2
How beautiful the sunlight was not even	B2
Upon the windy fields of morning grass	S2
Nor on the river nor the ripening corn	B2
As if to catch a wild live thing he crept	Y4
On tiptoe silent laid him on the heap	Z3
And gazing down into the glory gulf	Z4
Dreamed as a boy half sleeping by the fire
Half dreaming rose and got his horses out
	-
God and not woman is the heart of all	I
But she as priestess of the visible earth	T2
Holding the key herself most beautiful	I
Had come to him and flung the portals wide	N2
He entered every beauty was a glass	S2
That gleamed the woman back upon his view	B2
Shall I not rather say each beauty gave
Its own soul up to him who worshipped her
For that his eyes were opened now to see	K
	-
Already in these hours his quickened soul	I
Put forth the white tip of a floral bud	X
Ere long to be a crown like aureole flower
His songs unbidden his joy in ancient tales	U
Had hitherto alone betrayed the seed	R2
That lay in his heart close hidden even from him	L3
Yet not the less mellowing all his spring
Like summer sunshine came the maiden's face	O
And in the youth's glad heart the seed awoke	T3
It grew and spread and put forth many flowers	W3
Its every flower a living open eye	S
Until his soul was full of eyes within	B2
Each morning now was a fresh boon to him	L3
Each wind a spiritual power upon his life	E3
Each individual animal did share	F2
A common being with him every kind	Z2
Of flower from every other was distinct
Uttering that for which alone it was
Its something human wrapt in other veil	I
	-
And when the winter came when thick the snow	B2
Armed the sad fields from gnawing of the frost
When the low sun but skirted his far realms
And sank in early night he drew his chair	F2
Beside the fire and by the feeble lamp
Read book on book and wandered other climes
And lived in other lives and other needs
And grew a larger self by other selves
Ere long the love of knowledge had become	L4
A hungry passion and a conscious power
And craved for more than reading could supply	S
Then through the night all dark except the moon	B2
Shone frosty o'er the heath or the white snow	B2
Gave back such motes of light as else had sunk
In the dark earth he bent his plodding way	C
Over the moors to where the little town	B2
Lay gathered in the hollow There the student	A3
Who taught from lingering dawn to early dark
Had older scholars in the long fore night	F
For youths who in the shop or in the barn	B2
Or at the loom had done their needful work
Came gathering there through starlight fog or snow	B2
And found the fire ablaze the candles lit
And him who knew waiting for who would know	B2
Here mathematics wiled him to their heights
And strange consent of lines to form and law	I
Made Euclid a profound romance of truth	T2
The master saw with wonder how he seized
How eagerly devoured the offered food
And longed to give him further kinds For Knowledge
Would multiply like Life and two clear souls
That see a truth and turning see at once
Each the other's face glow in that truth's delight	F
Are drawn like lovers So the master offered	Q3
To guide the ploughman through the narrow ways
To heights of Roman speech The youth alert
Caught at the offer and for years of nights
The house asleep he groped his twilight way	C
With lexicon and rule through ancient story	K
Or fable fine embalmed in Latin old
Wherein his knowledge of the English tongue
Through reading many books much aided him	L3
For best is like in all the hearts and tongues
	-
At length his progress through the master's pride	N2
In such a pupil reached the father's ears
Great gladness woke within him and he vowed	L2
If caring sparing might accomplish it
He should to college and there have his fill	I
Of that same learning
	-
To the plough no more	F3
All day to school he went and ere a year	W
He wore the scarlet gown with the closed sleeves
	-
Awkward at first but with a dignity	K
Soon finding fit embodiment in speech
And gesture and address he made his way	C
Unconscious all to the full orbed respect
Of students and professors for whose praise
More than his worth society so called
To its rooms in that great city of the North	T2
Invited him He entered Dazzled at first
By brilliance of the shining show the lights
The mirrors gems white necks and radiant eyes	N3
He stole into a corner and was quiet
Until the vision too had quieter grown	B2
Bewildered next by many a sparkling word	Q3
Nor knowing the light play of polished minds
Which like rose diamonds cut in many facets
Catch and reflect the wandering rays of truth	T2
As if they were home born and issuing new	B2
He held his peace and silent soon began	B2
To see how little fire it needs to shimmer
Hence in the midst of talk his thoughts would wander
Back to the calm divine of homely toil	I
While round him still and ever hung an air	F2
Of breezy fields and plough and cart and scythe	T2
A kind of clumsy grace in which gay girls
Saw but the clumsiness another sort
Saw the grace too yea sometimes when he spoke	T3
Saw the grace only and began at last
For he sought none to seek him in the crowd	L2
And find him unexpected maiden wise	N3
But oftener far they sought him than they found	A
For seldom was he drawn away from toil	I
Seldomer stinted time held due to toil	I
For if one night his panes were dark the next
They gleamed far into morning And he won	B2
Honours among the first each session's close
	-
Nor think that new familiarity	K
With open forms of ill not to be shunned
Where many youths are met endangered much
A mind that had begun to will the pure
Oft when the broad rich humour of a jest
With breezy force drew in its skirts a troop
Of pestilential vapours following
Arose within his sudden silent mind	Z2
The maiden face that once blushed down on him	L3
That lady face insphered beyond his earth	T2
Yet visible as bright particular star	W4
A flush of tenderness then glowed across
His bosom shone it clean from passing harm	H4
Should that sweet face be banished by rude words
It could not stay what maidens might not hear
He almost wept for shame that face such jest
Should meet in his house To his love he made	H3
Love's only worthy offering purity	K
	-
And if the homage that he sometimes met
New to the country lad conveyed in smiles
Assents and silent listenings when he spoke	T3
Threatened yet more his life's simplicity	K
An antidote of nature ever came	A2
Even Nature's self For in the summer months
His former haunts and boyhood's circumstance
Received him to the bosom of their grace	O
And he too noble to despise the past
Too proud to be ashamed of manly toil	I
Too wise to fancy that a gulf gaped wide	N2
Betwixt the labouring hand and thinking brain	B2
Or that a workman was no gentleman	B2
Because a workman clothed himself again	B2
In his old garments took the hoe the spade	H3
The sowing sheet or covered in the grain	B2
Smoothing with harrows what the plough had ridged
With ever fresher joy he hailed the fields	L
Returning still with larger powers of sight	F
Each time he knew them better than before	F3
And yet their sweetest aspect was the old
His labour kept him true to life and fact
Casting out worldly judgments false desires	W3
And vain distinctions Ever at his toil	I
New thoughts would rise which when God's night awoke	T3
He still would seek like stars with instruments
By science or by truth's philosophy	K
Bridging the gulf betwixt the new and old
Thus laboured he with hand and brain at once
Nor missed due readiness when Scotland's sons
Met to reap wisdom and the fields were white	F
	-
His sire was proud of him and most of all	I
Because his learning did not make him proud	L2
He was too wise to build upon his lore	F3
The neighbours asked what he would make his son	B2
I'll make a man of him the old man said	U3
And for the rest just what he likes himself	O2
He is my only son I think he'll keep	Z3
The old farm on and I shall go content	U2
Leaving a man behind me as I say	C
	-
So four years long his life swung to and fro	B2
Alternating the red gown and blue coat
The garret study and the wide floored barn	B2
The wintry city and the sunny fields	L
In every change his mind was well content	U2
For in himself he was the growing same	A2
	-
In no one channel flowed his seeking thoughts
To no profession did he ardent turn	B2
He knew his father's wish it was his own	B2
Why should a man he said when knowledge grows	T
Leave therefore the old patriarchal life	E3
And seek distinction in the noise of men	B2
He turned his asking face on every side	N2
Went reverent with the anatomist and saw	I
The inner form of man laid skilful bare	F2
Went with the chymist whose wise questioning hand	J2
Made Nature do in little before his eyes	N3
And momently what huge for centuries	O4
And in the veil of vastness and lone deeps	O4
She labours at bent his inquiring eye	S
On every source whence knowledge flows for men	B2
At some he only sipped at others drank	S4
	-
At length when he had gained the master's right	F
By custom sacred from of old to sit
With covered head before the awful rank	S4
Of black gowned senators and each of those	O4
Proud of the scholar was ready at a word	Q3
To speed him onward to what goal he would	P3
He took his books his well worn cap and gown	B2
And leaving with a sigh the ancient walls	O4
Crowned with their crown of stone unchanging gray	C
In all the blandishments of youthful spring
Chose for his world the lone ancestral farm	H4
	-
With simple gladness met him on the road
His gray haired father elder brother now	X2
Few words were spoken little welcome said	U3
But as they walked the more was understood	P3
If with a less delight he brought him home
Than he who met the prodigal returned	G3
It was with more reliance with more peace	O4
For with the leaning pride that old men feel	I
In young strong arms that draw their might from them	P
He led him to the house His sister there	F2
Whose kisses were not many but whose eyes	O4
Were full of watchfulness and hovering love	N4
Set him beside the fire in the old place	O4
And heaped the table with best country fare	F2
	-
When the swift night grew deep the father rose	O4
And led him wondering why and where they went	U2
Thorough the limpid dark by tortuous path	T2
Between the corn ricks to a loft above	N4
The stable where the same old horses slept	Y4
Which he had guided that eventful morn	B2
Entering he saw a change pursuing hand	J2
Had been at work The father leading on	B2
Across the floor heaped high with store of grain	B2
Opened a door An unexpected light	F
Flashed on him cheerful from a fire and lamp
That burned alone as in a fairy tale	I
Behold a little room a curtained bed	U3
An easy chair bookshelves and writing desk
An old print of a deep Virgilian wood	P3
And one of choosing Hercules The youth	T2
Gazed and spoke not The old paternal love	N4
Had sought and found an incarnation new	B2
For honouring in his son the simple needs	O4
Which his own bounty had begot in him	L3
He gave him thus a lonely thinking space	O4
A silent refuge With a quiet good night	F
He left him dumb with love Faintly beneath	T2
The horses stamped and drew the lengthening chain	B2
	-
Three sliding years with slowly blended change
Drew round their winter summer autumn spring
Fulfilled of work by hands and brain and heart	O3
He laboured as before though when he would	P3
And Nature urged not he with privilege
Would spare from hours of toil read in his room
Or wander through the moorland to the hills	O4
There on the apex of the world would stand	J2
As on an altar burning soul and heart	O3
Himself the sacrifice of faith and prayer	F2
Gaze in the face of the inviting blue	B2
That domed him round ask why it should be blue	B2
Pray yet again and with love strengthened heart	O3
Go down to lower things with lofty cares	O4
	-
When Sundays came the father daughter son	B2
Walked to the church across their own loved fields	O4
It was an ugly church with scarce a sign	B2
Of what makes English churches venerable	I
Likest a crowing cock upon a heap	Z3
It stood but let us say St Peter's cock
Lacking not many a holy rousing charm	H4
For one with whose known self it was coeval	I
Dawning with it from darkness of the unseen	B2
And its low mounds of monumental grass	O4
Were far more solemn than great marble tombs	O4
For flesh is grass its goodliness the flower
Oh lovely is the face of green churchyard
On sunny afternoons The light itself	O2
Nestles amid the grass and the sweet wind	Z2
Says I am here no more With sun and wind	Z2
And crowing cocks who can believe in death	T2
He on such days when from the church they Came	A2
And through God's ridges took their thoughtful way	C
The last psalm lingering faintly in their hearts	O4
Would look inquiring where his ridge would rise	O4
But when it gloomed or rained he turned aside	N2
What mattered it to him	L3
	-
And as they walked
Homeward right well the father loved to hear
The fresh rills pouring from his son's clear well	I
For the old man clung not to the old alone	B2
Nor leaned the young man only to the new	B2
They would the best they sought and followed it
The Pastor fills his office well he said	U3
In homely jest the Past alone he heeds	O4
Honours those Jewish times as he were a Jew	B2
And Christ were neither Jew nor northern man	B2
He has no ear for this poor Present Hour
Which wanders up and down the centuries	O4
Like beggar boy roaming the wintry streets	O4
With witless hand held out to passers by	S
And yet God made the voice of its many cries	O4
Mine be the work that comes first to my hand	J2
The lever set I grasp and heave withal	I
I love where I live and let my labour flow	I
Into the hollows of the neighbour needs	O4
Perhaps I like it best I would not choose	O4
Another than the ordered circumstance	O4
This farm is God's as much as yonder town	B2
These men and maidens kine and horses his	O4
For them his laws must be incarnated	J2
In act and fact and so their world redeemed	J2
	-
Though thus he spoke at times he spake not oft	J2
Ruled chief by action what he said he did	J2
No grief was suffered there of man or beast	J2
More than was need no creature fled in fear	W
All slaying was with generous suddenness	O4
Like God's benignant lightning For he said	J2
God makes the beasts and loves them dearly well	I
Better than any parent loves his child	J2
It may be would he say for still the may be	K
Was sacred with him no less than the is	O4
In such humility he lived and wrought	J2
Hence are they sacred Sprung from God as we	K
They are our brethren in a lower kind	J2
And in their face we see the human look
If any said Men look like animals	O4
Each has his type set in the lower kind	J2
His answer was The animals are like men	B2
Each has his true type set in the higher kind	J2
Though even there only rough hewn as yet	J2
The hell of cruelty will be the ghosts	O4
Of the sad beasts their crowding heads will come	L4
And with encircling slow pain patient eyes	O4
Stare the ill man to madness	O4
	-
When he spoke	T3
His word behind it had the force of deeds	O4
Unborn within him ready to be born	B2
But like his race he promised very slow	I
His goodness ever went before his word	J2
Embodying itself unconsciously	K
In understanding of the need that prayed	J2
And cheerful help that would outrun the prayer	F2
	-
When from great cities came the old sad news	O4
Of crime and wretchedness and children sore	F3
With hunger and neglect and cruel blows	O4
He would walk sadly all the afternoon	B2
With head down bent and pondering footstep slow	I
Arriving ever at the same result	J2
Concluding ever The best that I can do	J2
For the great world is the same best I can	B2
For this my world What truth may be therein	B2
Will pass beyond my narrow circumstance	O4
In truth's own right When a philanthropist	J2
Said pompously It is not for your gifts	O4
To spend themselves on common labours thus	O4
You owe the world far nobler things than such
He answered him The world is in God's hands	O4
This part of it in mine My sacred past	J2
With all its loves inherited has led	J2
Hither here left me shall I judge arrogant	J2
Primaeval godlike work in earth and air	F2
Seed time and harvest offered fellowship
With God in nature unworthy of my hands	O4
I know your argument I know with grief
The crowds of men in whom a starving soul	I
Cries through the windows of their hollow eyes	O4
For bare humanity nay room to grow	I
Would I could help them But all crowds are made	J2
Of individuals and their grief and pain	B2
Their thirst and hunger all are of the one	B2
Not of the many the true the saving power
Enters the individual door and thence	O4
Issues again in thousand influences	O4
Besieging other doors I cannot throw	I
A mass of good into the general midst	J2
Whereof each man may seize his private share	F2
And if one could it were of lowest kind	J2
Not reaching to that hunger of the soul	I
Now here I labour whole in the same spot	J2
Where they have known me from my childhood up	S3
And I know them each individual	I
If there is power in me to help my own	B2
Even of itself it flows beyond my will	I
Takes shape in commonest of common acts	O4
Meets every humble day's necessity	K
I would not always consciously do good	J2
Not always work from full intent of help	P4
Lest I forget the measure heaped and pressed	J2
And running over which they pour for me	K
And never reap the too much of return	B2
In smiling trust and beams from kindly eyes	O4
But in the city with a few lame words	O4
And a few wretched coins sore coveted	J2
To mediate 'twixt my cannot and my would	J2
My best attempts would never strike a root	J2
My scattered corn would turn to wind blown chaff
I should grow weak might weary of my kind	J2
Misunderstood the most where almost known	B2
Baffled and beaten by their unbelief
Years could not place me where I stand this day	J2
High on the vantage ground of confidence	O4
I might for years toil on and reach no man	B2
Besides to leave the thing that nearest lies	O4
And choose the thing far off more difficult	J2
The act having no touch of God in it	J2
Who seeks the needy for the pure need's sake
Must straightway die choked in its selfishness	O4
Thus he The world wise schemer for the good	J2
Held his poor peace and went his trackless way	J2
	-
What of the vision now the vision fair	F2
Sent forth to meet him when at eve he went	J2
Home from his first day's ploughing Oft he dreamed	J2
She passed him smiling on her stately horse	O4
But never band or buckle yielded more	F3
Never again his hands enthroned the maid	J2
He only worshipped with his eyes and woke	T3
Nor woke he then with foolish vain regret	J2
But saying I have seen the beautiful	I
Smiled with his eyes upon a flower or bird	J2
Or living form whate'er of gentleness	O4
That met him first and all that morn his face	O4
Would oftener dawn into a blossomy smile	I
	-
And ever when he read a lofty tale	I
Or when the storied leaf or ballad old	J2
Or spake or sang of woman very fair	F2
Or wondrous good he saw her face alone	B2
The tale was told the song was sung of her
He did not turn aside from other maids	O4
But loved their faces pure and faithful eyes	O4
He may have thought One day I wed a maid	J2
And make her mine but never came the maid	J2
Or never came the hour he walked alone	B2
Meantime how fared the lady She had wed	J2
One of the common crowd there must be ore	F3
For the gold grains to lie in virgin gold	J2
Lies in the rock enriching not the stone	B2
She was not one who of herself could be	K
And she had found no heart which tuned with hers	O4
Would beat in rhythm growing into rime	K
She read phantasmagoric tales sans salt	J2
Sans hope sans growth or listlessly conversed	J2
With phantom visitors ladies not friends	O4
Mere spectral forms from fashion's concave glass	O4
She haunted gay assemblies ill content	J2
Witched woods to hide in from her better self
And danced and sang and ached What had she felt	J2
If called up by the ordered sounds and motions	O4
A vision had arisen as once of old	J2
The minstrel's art laid bare the seer's eye	S
And showed him plenteous waters in the waste	J2
If the gay dance had vanished from her sight	J2
And she beheld her ploughman lover go	I
With his great stride across a lonely field	J2
Under the dark blue vault ablaze with stars	O4
Lifting his full eyes to the radiant roof
Live with our future or had she beheld	J2
Him studious with space compelling mind	J2
Bent on his slate pursue some planet's course	O4
Or reading justify the poet's wrath	T2
Or sage's slow conclusion If a voice	O4
Had whispered then This man in many a dream	K
And many a waking moment of keen joy
Blesses you for the look that woke his heart	J2
That smiled him into life and still undimmed	J2
Lies lamping in the cabinet of his soul	I
Would her sad eyes have beamed with sudden light	J2
Would not her soul half dead with nothingness	O4
Have risen from the couch of its unrest	J2
And looked to heaven again again believed	J2
In God and life courage and duty and love
Would not her soul have sung to its lone self
I have a friend a ploughman who is wise	O4
He knows what God and goodness and fair faith	T2
Mean in the words and books of mighty men	B2
He nothing heeds the show of worldly things	O4
But worships the unconquerable truth	T2
This man is humble and loves me I will	I
Be proud and very humble If he knew me	K
Would he go on and love me till we meet	J2
	-
In the third year a heavy harvest fell	I
Full filled before the reaping hook and scythe	T2
The heat was scorching but the men and maids	O4
Lightened their toil with merry jest and song	E2
Rested at mid day and from brimming bowl	I
Drank the brown ale and white abundant milk
The last ear fell and spiky stubble stood	J2
Where waved the forests of dry murmuring corn	B2
And sheaves rose piled in shocks like ranged tents	O4
Of an encamping army tent by tent	J2
To stand there while the moon should have her will	I
	-
The grain was ripe The harvest carts went out	J2
Broad platformed bearing back the towering load	J2
With frequent passage 'twixt homeyard and field	J2
And half the oats already hid their tops	O4
Their ringing rustling wind responsive sprays	O4
In the still darkness of the towering stack	P2
When in the north low billowy clouds appeared	J2
Blue based white crested in the afternoon	B2
And westward darker masses plashed with blue	J2
And outlined vague in misty steep and dell	I
Clomb o'er the hill tops thunder was at hand	J2
The air was sultry But the upper sky	S
Was clear and radiant	J2
	-
Downward went the sun	B2
Below the sullen clouds that walled the west	J2
Below the hills below the shadowed world	J2
The moon looked over the clear eastern wall	I
And slanting rose and looked rose looked again	B2
And searched for silence in her yellow fields	O4
But found it not For there the staggering carts	O4
Like overladen beasts crawled homeward still	I
Sped fieldward light and low The laugh broke yet	J2
That lightning of the soul's unclouded skies	O4
Though not so frequent now that toil forgot	J2
Its natural hour Still on the labour went	J2
Straining to beat the welkin climbing heave
Of the huge rain clouds heavy with their floods	O4
Sleep old enchantress sided with the clouds	O4
The hoisting clouds and cast benumbing spells	O4
On man and horse One youth who walked beside	J2
A ponderous load of sheaves higher than wont	J2
Which dared the lurking levin overhead	J2
Woke with a start falling against the wheel	I
That circled slow after the slumbering horse	O4
Yet none would yield to soft suggesting sleep	Z3
And quit the last few shocks for the wild storm	K
Would catch thereby the skirts of Harvest home	K
And hold her lingering half way in the rain	B2
	-
The scholar laboured with his men all night	J2
He did not favour such prone headlong race	O4
With Nature To himself he said The night	J2
Is sent for sleep we ought to sleep in the night	J2
And leave the clouds to God Not every storm	K
That climbeth heavenward overwhelms the earth	T2
And when God wills 'tis better he should will	I
What he takes from us never can be lost	J2
But the father so had ordered and the son	B2
Went manful to his work and held his peace	O4
	-
When the dawn blotted pale the clouded east	J2
The first drops overgrown and helpless fell	I
On the last home bound cart oppressed with sheaves	O4
And by its side the last in the retreat	J2
The scholar walked slow bringing up the rear	W
Half the still lengthening journey he had gone	B2
When on opposing strength of upper winds	O4
Tumultuous borne at last the labouring racks	O4
Met in the zenith and the silence ceased	J2
The lightning brake and flooded all the world	J2
Its roar of airy billows following it	J2
The darkness drank the lightning and again	B2
Lay more unslaked But ere the darkness came	K
In the full revelation of the flash
Met by some stranger flash from cloudy brain	B2
He saw the lady borne upon her horse	O4
Careless of thunder as when years agone	B2
He saw her once to see for evermore	F3
Ah ha he said my dreams are come for me	K
Now shall they have me For all through the night	J2
There had been growing trouble in his frame	K
An overshadowing of something dire
Arrived at home the weary man and horse	O4
Forsook their load the one went to his stall	I
The other sought the haven of his bed	J2
There slept and moaned cried out and woke and slept	J2
Through all the netted labyrinth of his brain	B2
The fever shot its pent malignant fire
'Twas evening when to passing consciousness	O4
He woke and saw his father by his side	J2
His guardian form in every vision drear
That followed watching shone and the healing face	O4
Of his true sister gleamed through all his pain	B2
Soothing and strengthening with cloudy hope
Till at the weary last of many days	O4
He woke to sweet quiescent consciousness	O4
Enfeebled much but with a new born life
His soul a summer evening after rain	B2
	-
Slow with the passing weeks he gathered strength	T2
And ere the winter came seemed half restored	J2
And hope was busy But a fire too keen	B2
Burned in his larger eyes and in his cheek
Too ready came the blood at faintest call	I
Glowing a fair quick fading sunset hue	J2
	-
Before its hour a biting frost set in	B2
It gnawed with icy fangs his shrinking life
And that disease bemoaned throughout the land	J2
The smiling hoping wasting radiant death	T2
Was born of outer cold and inner heat	J2
	-
One morn his sister entering while he slept	J2
Spied in his listless hand a handkerchief
Spotted with red Cold with dismay she stood	J2
Scared motionless But catching in the glass	O4
The sudden glimpse of a white ghostly face	O4
She started at herself and he awoke	T3
He understood and said with smile unsure
Bright red was evermore my master hue	J2
And see I have it in me that is why	S
She shuddered and he saw nor jested more
But smiled again and looked Death in the face	O4
	-
When first he saw the red blood outward leap	Z3
As if it sought again the fountain heart	J2
Whence it had flowed to fill the golden bowl	I
No terror seized an exaltation swelled	J2
His spirit now the pondered mystery
Would fling its portals wide and take him in	B2
One of the awful dead Them fools conceive
As ghosts that fleet and pine bereft of weight	J2
And half their valued lives he otherwise	O4
Hoped now and now expected and again	B2
Said only I await the thing to come	K
	-
So waits a child the lingering curtain's rise	O4
While yet the panting lamps restrained burn	B2
At half height and the theatre is full	I
	-
But as the days went by they brought sad hours	O4
When he would sit his hands upon his knees	O4
Drooping and longing for the wine of life
For when the ninefold crystal spheres through which
The outer light sinks in are cracked and broken	B2
Yet able to keep in the 'piring life
Distressing shadows cross the chequered soul	I
Poor Psyche trims her irresponsive lamp
And anxious visits oft her store of oil	I
And still the shadows fall she must go pray
And God who speaks to man at door and lattice	O4
Glorious in stars and winds and flowers and waves	O4
Not seldom shuts the door and dims the pane	B2
That isled in calm his still small voice may sound	J2
The clearer by the hearth in the inner room	K
Sound on until the soul fulfilled of hope
Look undismayed on that which cannot kill	I
And saying in the dark I will the light	J2
Glow in the gloom the present will of God	J2
Then melt the shadows of her shaken house	O4
	-
He when his lamp shot up a spiring flame	K
Would thus break forth and climb the heaven of prayer
Do with us what thou wilt all glorious heart	J2
Thou God of them that are not yet but grow
We trust thee for the thing we shall be yet	J2
We too are ill content with what we are
And when the flame sank and the darkness fell	I
He lived by faith which is the soul of sight	J2
	-
Yet in the frequent pauses of the light	J2
When all was dreary as a drizzling thaw	I
When sleep came not although he prayed for sleep	Z3
And wakeful weary on his bed he lay
Like frozen lake that has no heaven within	B2
Then then the sleeping horror woke and stirred	J2
And with the tooth of unsure thought began	B2
To gnaw the roots of life What if there were
No truth in beauty What if loveliness	O4
Were but the invention of a happier mood	J2
For if my mind can dim or slay the Fair
Why should it not enhance or make the Fair
Nay Psyche answered for a tired man	B2
May drop his eyelids on the visible world	J2
To whom no dreams when fancy flieth free
Will bring the sunny excellence of day
'Tis easy to destroy God only makes	O4
Could my invention sweep the lucid waves	O4
With purple shadows next create the joy
With which my life beholds them Wherefore should	J2
One meet the other without thought of mine	B2
If God did not mean beauty in them and me
But dropped them helpless shadows from his sun	B2
There were no God his image not being mine	B2
And I should seek in vain for any bliss	O4
Oh lack and doubt and fear can only come	K
Because of plenty confidence and love
Those are the shadow forms about the feet	J2
Of these because they are not crystal clear
To the all searching sun in which they live
Dread of its loss is Beauty's certain seal	I
Thus reasoned mourning Psyche Suddenly
The sun would rise and vanish Psyche's lamp
Absorbed in light not swallowed in the dark
	-
It was a wintry time with sunny days	O4
With visitings of April airs and scents	O4
That came with sudden presence unforetold	J2
As brushed from off the outer spheres of spring
In the great world where all is old and new	J2
Strange longings he had never known till now	B2
Awoke within him flowers of rooted hope
For a whole silent hour he would sit and gaze	O4
Upon the distant hills whose dazzling snow
Starred the dim blue or down their dark ravines	O4
Crept vaporous until the fancy rose	O4
That on the other side those rampart walls	O4
A mighty woman sat with waiting face	O4
Calm as that life whose rapt intensity	J2
Borders on death silent waiting for him	K
To make him grand for ever with a kiss	O4
And send him silent through the toning worlds	O4
	-
The father saw him waning The proud sire
Beheld his pride go drooping in the cold	J2
Like snowdrop on its grave and sighed deep thanks	O4
That he was old But evermore the son	B2
Looked up and smiled as he had heard strange news	O4
Across the waste of tree buds and primroses	O4
Then all at once the other mood would come	K
And like a troubled child he would seek his father
For father comfort which fathers all can give
Sure there is one great Father in the world	J2
Since every word of good from fathers' lips	O4
Falleth with such authority although
They are but men as we This trembling son	B2
Who saw the unknown death draw hourly nigher
Sought solace in his father's tenderness	O4
And made him strong to die	J2
	-
One shining day	J2
Shining with sun and snow he came and said	J2
What think you father is death very sore
My boy the father answered we will try	J2
To make it easy with the present God	J2
But as I judge though more by hope than sight	J2
It seems much harder to the lookers on	B2
Than to the man who dies Each panting breath	T2
We call a gasp may be in him the cry	J2
Of infant eagerness or at worst the sob
With which the unclothed spirit step by step
Wades forth into the cool eternal sea	J2
I think my boy death has two sides to it	J2
One sunny and one dark as this round earth	T2
Is every day half sunny and half dark
We on the dark side call the mystery death	T2
They on the other looking down in light	J2
Wait the glad birth with other tears than ours	O4
Be near me father when I die he said	J2
I will my boy until a better Father
Draws your hand out of mine Be near in turn	B2
When my time comes you in the light beyond	J2
And knowing well the country I in the dark
	-
The days went by until the tender green	B2
Shone through the snow in patches Then the hope
Of life reviving faintly stirred his heart	J2
For the spring drew him warm soft budding spring
With promises and he went forth to meet her
	-
But he who once had strode a king on the fields	O4
Walked softly now lay on the daisied grass	O4
And sighed sometimes in secret that so soon	B2
The earth with all its suns and harvests fair
Must lie far off an old forsaken thing
	-
But though I lingering listen to the old	J2
Ere yet I strike new chords that seize the old	J2
And lift their lost souls up the music stair
Think not he was too fearful faint of heart	J2
To look the blank unknown full in the void	J2
For he had hope in God the growth of years	O4
Of ponderings of childish aspirations	O4
Of prayers and readings and repentances	O4
For something in him had ever sought the peace	O4
Of other something deeper in him still	I
A faint sound sighing for a harmony	J2
With other fainter sounds that softly drew
Nearer and nearer from the unknown depths	O4
Where the Individual goeth out in God	J2
The something in him heard and hearing listened	J2
And sought the way by which the music came	K
Hoping at last to find the face of him	K
To whom Saint John said Lord with holy awe
And on his bosom fearless leaned the while	I
	-
As his slow spring came on the swelling life
The new creation inside of the old	J2
Pressed up in buds toward the invisible	I
And burst the crumbling mould wherein it lay	J2
Not once he thought of that still churchyard now	B2
He looked away from earth and loved the sky	J2
One earthly notion only clung to him	K
He thanked God that he died not in the cold	J2
For said he I would rather go abroad	J2
When the sun shines and birds are singing blithe It	J2
may be that we know not aught of place	O4
Or any sense and only live in thought	J2
But knowing not I cling to warmth and light	J2
I may pass forth into the sea of air
That swings its massy waves around the earth	T2
And I would rather go when it is full	I
Of light and blue and larks than when gray fog
Dulls it with steams of old earth winter sick
Now in the dawn of summer I shall die	J2
Sinking asleep ere sunset I will hope
And going with the light And when they say	J2
'He's dead he rests at last his face is changed '	-
I shall be saying Yet yet I live I love '	-
	-
The weary nights did much to humble him	K
They made the good he knew seem all ill known	B2
He would go by and by to school again	B2
Father he said I am nothing but Thou art	J2
Like half asleep whole dreaming child he was	O4
Who longing for his mother has forgot	J2
The arms about him holding him to her heart	J2
Mother he murmuring moans she wakes him up	S3
That he may see her face and sleep indeed	J2
	-
Father we need thy winter as thy spring
We need thy earthquakes as thy summer showers	O4
But through them all thy strong arms carry us	O4
Thy strong heart bearing large share in our grief
Because thou lovest goodness more than joy
In them thou lovest thou dost let them grieve
We must not vex thee with our peevish cries	O4
But look into thy face and hold thee fast	J2
And say O Father Father when the pain	B2
Seems overstrong Remember our poor hearts	O4
We never grasp the zenith of the time	K
We have no spring except in winter prayers	O4
But we believe alas we only hope That	J2
one day we shall thank thee perfectly	J2
For every disappointment pang and shame	K
That drove us to the bosom of thy love
	-
One night as oft he lay and could not sleep	Z3
His spirit was a chamber empty dark
Through which bright pictures passed of the outer world	J2
The regnant Will gazed passive on the show
The magic tube through which the shadows came	K
Witch Memory turned and stayed In ones and troops	O4
Glided across the field the things that were
Silent and sorrowful like all things old	J2
Even old rose leaves have a mournful scent	J2
And old brown letters are more sad than graves	O4
	-
At length as ever in such vision hours	O4
Came the bright maiden high upon her horse	O4
Will started all awake passive no more
And necromantic sage the apparition	B2
That came unbid commanded to abide	J2
	-
Gathered around her form his brooding thoughts	O4
How had she fared spinning her history	J2
Into a psyche cradle With what wings	O4
Would she come forth to greet the aeonian summer
Glistening with feathery dust of silver or
Dull red and seared with spots of black ingrained	J2
I know he said some women fail of life
The rose hath shed her leaves is she a rose	O4
	-
The fount of possibilities began	B2
To gurgle threatful underneath the thought	J2
Anon the geyser column raging rose	O4
For purest souls sometimes have direst fears	O4
In ghost hours when the shadow of the earth	T2
Is cast on half her children and the sun	B2
Is busy giving daylight to the rest	J2
	-
Oh God he cried if she be such as those	O4
Angels in the eyes of poet boys who still	I
Fancy the wavings of invisible wings	O4
But in their own familiar chamber thoughts	O4
Common as clay and of the trodden earth	T2
It cannot cannot be She is of God	J2
And yet things lovely perish higher life
Gives deeper death fair gifts make fouler faults	O4
Women themselves I dare not think the rest	J2
Such thoughts went walking up and down his soul	I
But found at last a spot wherein to rest	J2
Building a resolution for the day	J2
	-
The next day and the next he was too worn	B2
To clothe intent in body of a deed	J2
A cold dry wind blew from the unkindly east	J2
Making him feel as he had come to the earth	T2
Before God's spirit moved on the water's face	O4
To make it ready for him	K
	-
But the third	J2
Morning rose radiant A genial wind	J2
Rippled the blue air 'neath the golden sun	B2
And brought glad summer tidings from the south	T2
	-
He lay now in his father's room for there
The southern sun poured all the warmth he had	J2
His rays fell on the fire alive with flames	O4
And turned it ghostly pale and would have slain	B2
Even as the sunshine of the higher life
Quenching the glow of this leaves but a coal	I
He rose and sat him down 'twixt sun and fire
Two lives fought in him for the mastery	J2
And half from each forth flowed the written stream	K
Lady I owe thee much Stay not to look
Upon my name I write it but I date	J2
From the churchyard where it shall lie in peace	O4
Thou reading it Thou know'st me not at all	I
Nor dared I write but death is crowning me	J2
Thy equal If my boldness yet offend	J2
Lo pure in my intent I am with the ghosts	O4
Where when thou comest thou hast already known	B2
God equal makes at first and Death at last	J2
	-
But pardon lady Ere I had begun	B2
My thoughts moved toward thee with a gentle flow
That bore a depth of waters when I took
My pen to write they rushed into a gulf
Precipitate and foamy Can it be	J2
That Death who humbles all hath made me proud	J2
	-
Lady thy loveliness hath walked my brain	B2
As if I were thy heritage bequeathed	J2
From many sires yet only from afar
I have worshipped thee content to know the vision	B2
Had lifted me above myself who saw	O4
And ta'en my angel nigh thee in thy heaven	B2
Thy beauty lady hath overflowed and made	J2
Another being beautiful beside	J2
With virtue to aspire and be itself
Afar as angels or the sainted dead	J2
Yet near as loveliness can haunt a man	B2
Thy form hath put on each revealing dress	O4
Of circumstance and history high or low
In which from any tale of selfless life
Essential womanhood hath shone on me	J2
	-
Ten years have passed away since the first time	K
Which was the last I saw thee What have these	O4
Made or unmade in thee I ask myself
O lovely in my memory art thou	B2
As lovely in thyself Thy glory then	B2
Was what God made thee art thou such indeed	J2
Forgive my boldness lady I am dead	J2
The dead may cry their voices are so small	I
	-
I have a prayer to make thee hear the dead	J2
Lady for God's sake be as beautiful	I
As that white form that dwelleth in my heart	J2
Yea better still as that ideal Pure
That waketh in thee when thou prayest God	J2
Or helpest thy poor neighbour For myself
I pray For if I die and find that she	J2
My woman glory lives in common air
Is not so very radiant after all	I
My sad face will afflict the calm eyed ghosts	O4
Unused to see such rooted sorrow there
With palm to palm my kneeling ghost implores	O4
Thee living lady justify my faith	T2
In womanhood's white handed nobleness	O4
And thee its revelation unto me	J2
	-
But I bethink me If thou turn thy thoughts	O4
Upon thyself even for that great sake
Of purity and conscious whiteness' self
Thou wilt but half succeed The other half
Is to forget the former yea thyself
Quenching thy moonlight in the blaze of day	J2
Turning thy being full unto thy God	J2
Be thou in him a pure twice holy child	J2
Doing the right with sweet unconsciousness	O4
Having God in thee thy completing soul	I
	-
Lady I die the Father holds me up	S3
It is not much to thee that I should die	J2
It may be much to know he holds me up	S3
	-
I thank thee lady for the gentle look
Which crowned me from thine eyes ten years ago
Ere clothed in nimbus of the setting sun	B2
Thee from my dazzled eyes thy horse did bear
Proud of his burden My dull tongue was mute	J2
I was a fool before thee but my silence	O4
Was the sole homage possible to me then	B2
That now I speak and fear not is thy gift	J2
The same sweet look be possible to thee	J2
For evermore I bless thee with thine own	B2
And say farewell and go into my grave
No to the sapphire heaven of all my hopes	O4
	-
Followed his name in full and then the name	K
Of the green churchyard where his form should lie	J2
	-
Back to his couch he crept weary and said	J2
O God I am but an attempt at life
Sleep falls again ere I am full awake
Light goeth from me in the morning hour
I have seen nothing clearly felt no thrill	I
Of pure emotion save in dreams ah dreams	O4
The high Truth has but flickered in my soul	I
Even at such times in wide blue midnight hours	O4
When dawning sudden on my inner world	J2
New stars came forth revealing unknown depths	O4
New heights of silence quelling all my sea	J2
And for a moment I saw formless fact	J2
And knew myself a living lonely thought	J2
Isled in the hyaline of Truth alway
I have not reaped earth's harvest O my God	J2
Have gathered but a few poor wayside flowers	O4
Harebells red poppies daisies eyebrights blue
Gathered them by the way for comforting
Have I aimed proudly therefore aimed too low
Striving for something visible in my thought	J2
And not the unseen thing hid far in thine	B2
Make me content to be a primrose flower
Among thy nations so the fair truth hid	J2
In the sweet primrose come awake in me	J2
And I rejoice an individual soul	I
Reflecting thee as truly then divine	B2
As if I towered the angel of the sun	B2
Once in a southern eve a glowing worm	K
Gave me a keener joy than the heaven of stars	O4
Thou camest in the worm nearer me then	B2
Nor do I think were I that green delight	J2
I would change to be the shadowy evening star
Ah make me Father anything thou wilt	J2
So be thou will it I am safe with thee	J2
I laugh exulting Make me something God	J2
Clear sunny veritable purity	J2
Of mere existence in thyself content	J2
And seeking no compare Sure I have reaped	J2
Earth's harvest if I find this holy death	T2
Now I am ready take me when thou wilt	J2
	-
He laid the letter in his desk with seal	I
And superscription When his sister came	K
He told her where to find it afterwards	O4
	-
As the slow eve through paler darker shades	O4
Insensibly declines until at last	J2
The lordly day is but a memory	J2
So died he In the hush of noon he died	J2
The sun shone on why should he not shine on	B2
Glad summer noises rose from all the land	J2
The love of God lay warm on hill and plain	B2
'Tis well to die in summer
	-
When the breath	T2
After a hopeless pause returned no more
The father fell upon his knees and said	J2
O God I thank thee it is over now	B2
Through the sore time thy hand has led him well	I
Lord let me follow soon and be at rest	J2
Therewith he rose and comforted the maid	J2
Who in her brother had lost the pride of life
And wept as all her heaven were only rain	B2
	-
Of the loved lady little more I know
I know not if when she had read his words	O4
She rose in haste and to her chamber went	J2
And shut the door nor if when she came forth	T2
A dawn of holier purpose gleamed across	O4
The sadness of her brow But this I know
That on a warm autumnal afternoon	B2
When headstone shadows crossed three neighbour graves	O4
And like an ended prayer the empty church
Stood in the sunshine or a cenotaph
A little boy who watched a cow near by	J2
Gather her milk where alms of clover fields	O4
Lay scattered on the sides of silent roads	O4
All sudden saw nor knew whence she had come	K
A lady veiled alone and very still	I
Seated upon a grave Long time she sat	J2
And moved not weeping sore the watcher said	J2
Though how he knew she wept were hard to tell	I
At length slow leaning on her elbow down	B2
She hid her face a while in the short grass	O4
And pulled a something small from off the mound	J2
A blade of grass it must have been he thought	J2
For nothing else was there not even a daisy	J2
And put it in a letter Then she rose	O4
And glided silent forth over the wall	I
Where the two steps on this side and on that	J2
Shorten the path from westward to the church
The clang of hoofs and sound of light swift wheels	O4
Arose and died upon the listener's ear

George Macdonald

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