Or seek or find or hold or cleave unto :
We cannot do or undo; Lord, undo

Our self-undoing, for Thine is the key
Of all we are not though we might have been.
Dear Lord, if ever mercy moved Thy mind,
If so be love of us can move Thee yet,

If still the nail-prints in Thy Hands are seen,

Remember us,-yea, how shouldst Thou forget? Remember us for good, and seek, and find.

3.

Each soul I might have succoured, may have slain,
All souls shall face me at the last Appeal,

That great last moment poised for woe or weal,
That final moment for man's bliss or bane.
Vanity of vanities, yea all is vain

Which then will not avail or help or heal:
Disfeatured faces, worn-out knees that kneel,
Will more avail than strength or beauty then.
Lord, by Thy Passion,-when Thy Face was marred
In sight of earth and hell tumultuous,

And Thy heart failed in Thee like melting wax, And Thy Blood dropped more precious than the nard,

Lord, for Thy sake, not our's, supply our lacks, For Thine own sake, not our's, Christ, pity us.

THE THREAD OF LIFE.

I.

'HE irresponsive silence of the land,

THE

The irresponsive sounding of the sea,

Speak both one message of one sense to me :—

Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof, so stand

Thou too aloof bound with the flawless band

Of inner solitude; we bind not thee;

But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free? What heart shall touch thy heart? what hand thy hand?

And I am sometimes proud and sometimes meek,
And sometimes I remember days of old
When fellowship seemed not so far to seek

And all the world and I seemed much less cold,
And at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold,
And hope felt strong and life itself not weak.

2.

Thus am I mine own prison.

Everything

Around me free and sunny and at ease :

Or if in shadow, in a shade of trees

Which the sun kisses, where the gay birds sing
And where all winds make various murmuring;

Where bees are found, with honey for the bees; Where sounds are music, and where silences Are music of an unlike fashioning.

Then gaze I at the merrymaking crew,

And smile a moment and a moment sigh
Thinking: Why can I not rejoice with you?
But soon I put the foolish fancy by:
I am not what I have nor what I do ;
But what I was I am, I am even I.

3.

Therefore myself is that one only thing
I hold to use or waste, to keep or give;
My sole possession every day I live,
And still mine own despite Time's winnowing.
Ever mine own, while moons and seasons bring

From crudeness ripeness mellow and sanative;
Ever mine own, till Death shall ply his sieve;
And still mine own, when saints break grave and
sing.

And this myself as king unto my King

I give, to Him Who gave Himself for me; Who gives Himself to me, and bids me sing

A sweet new song of His redeemed set free; He bids me sing: O death, where is thy sting? And sing: O grave, where is thy victory?

AN OLD-WORLD THICKET.

"Una selva oscura."-Dante.

AWAKE or sleeping (for I know not which)

I was or was not mazed within a wood

Where every mother-bird brought up her brood
Safe in some leafy niche

Of oak or ash, of cypress or of beech,

Of silvery aspen trembling delicately,

Of plane or warmer-tinted sycomore,

Of elm that dies in secret from the core,
Of ivy weak and free,

Of pines, of all green lofty things that be.

Such birds they seemed as challenged each desire;
Like spots of azure heaven upon the wing,
Like downy emeralds that alight and sing,
Like actual coals on fire,

Like anything they seemed, and everything.

Such mirth they made, such warblings and such chat
With tongue of music in a well-tuned beak,
They seemed to speak more wisdom than we speak,
To make our music flat

And all our subtlest reasonings wild or weak.

Their meat was nought but flowers like butterflies, With berries coral-coloured or like gold;

Their drink was only dew, which blossoms hold

Deep where the honey lies;

Their wings and tails were lit by sparkling eyes.

The shade wherein they revelled was a shade That danced and twinkled to the unseen sun; Branches and leaves cast shadows one by one, And all their shadows swayed

In breaths of air that rustled and that played.

A sound of waters neither rose nor sank,

And spread a sense of freshness through the air; It seemed not here or there, but everywhere,

As if the whole earth drank,

Root fathom deep and strawberry on its bank.

But I who saw such things as I have said,

Was overdone with utter weariness;

And walked in care, as one whom fears oppress, Because above his head

Death hangs, or damage, or the dearth of bread.

Each sore defeat of my defeated life

Faced and outfaced me in that bitter hour;
And turned to yearning palsy all my power,
And all my peace to strife,

Self stabbing self with keen lack-pity knife.