"Oh! but to breathe the breath of the primrose and cowslip sweet With the sky above my head, and the grass beneath my feet, If only for one short hour to feel as I used to feel, Before I knew the woes of want, and the walk that costs a meal. Oh! but for one short hour! a respite however brief! No blessed leisure for Love or Hope, but only time for grief! A little weeping would ease my heart, but in their briny bed My tears must stop, for every drop hinders needle and thread- With fingers weary and worn, with eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat in unwomanly rags, plying her needle and thread. Stitch! stitch! stitch! in poverty, hunger, and dirt; (Would that its tones could reach the rich!) 3 Psalm of Life. What the heart of the young man said to the Psalmist. Tell me not, in mournful numbers Life is real! Life is earnest ! Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 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, Be not like dumb driven cattle ! Trust no future, howe'er pleasant! Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime, And, departing leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time. Footprints, that perhaps another, Let us, then be up and doing, Learn to labour and to wait. There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The glory and the freshness of a dream: The things which I have seen I now can see no more. And lovely is the rose; The moon doth with delight Look round her, when the heavens are bare; Waters, on a starry night, Are beautiful and fair; The sunshine is a glorious birth: But yet I know, where'er I go, That there hath passed away a glory from the earth. All things that good and harmless are, Are taught, they say, to sing: The maiden as she trips along; The bird upon the wing; The little ones at church in praise; The angels in the sky The angels less when babes are born, Than when the aged die. As on thy mother's knee, While all around thee smiled. So live, that sinking Into death's long sleep, Calm thou may'st smile, While all around thee weep. Farewell! farewell! mine own dear friend, And thou hast reached the shelving shore. Farewell! that faint and faltering cry For as the sad sound melts away, Angelic tones take up the strain "Come, severed hearts! come home," they say, "Never to ache and part again !" The Last Man. All earthly shapes shall melt in gloom, Before this mortal shall assume I saw a vision in my sleep That gave my senses power to sweep Adown the gulf of time ! I saw the last of human mould, The sun's eye had a sickly glare, Some had expired in fight—the brand Earth's cities had no sound or tread; Yet Prophet-like that lone one stood, That shook the sere-leaves from the wood, Saying, we are twins in death, proud sun, Thy face is cold, thy race is run, 'Tis mercy bids thee go! For thou, ten thousand thousand years Hast seen the course of human tears Which shall no longer flow. What, though beneath thee, man put forth His pomp, his pride, his skill, And arts that made fire, flood, and earth The vasssals of his will ; Yet mourn I not thy parted sway, Thou dim discrowned king of day; For all those trophied arts And triumphs that beneath thee sprang, Healed not a passion or a pang Entailed on human hearts. |