THE GOBLET OF LIFE. FILLED is Life's goblet to the brim ; With solemn voice and slow. No purple flowers,-no garlands green, Conceal the goblet's shade or sheen, Nor maddening draughts of hippocrene, Like gleams of sunshine, flash between Thick leaves of mistletoe. This goblet, wrought with curious art, And as it mantling passes round, And give a bitter taste. Above the lowly plants it towers, Was gifted with the wondrous powers, It gave new strength and fearless mood; Then in Life's goblet freely press New light and strength they give! And he who has not learned to know The prayer of Ajax was for light; Through all that dark and desperate fight, The blackness of that noonday night, He asked but the return of sight, To see his foeman's face. Let our unceasing, earnest prayer Be too for light,-for strength to bear O suffering, sad humanity! Patient, though sorely tried! I pledge you in this cup of grief, The alarm, the struggle,-the relief,— MAIDENHOOD. MAIDEN! with the meek, brown eyes, In whose orbs a shadow lies Thou whose locks outshine the sun, Standing, with reluctant feet, Gazing, with a timid glance, Deep and still, that gliding stream As the river of a dream. Then why pause with indecision, Seest thou shadows sailing by, Hearest thou voices on the shore, Oh, thou child of many prayers! Care and age come unawares! Like the swell of some sweet tune, Morning rises into noon, May glides onward into June. Childhood is the bough, where slumbered Birds and blossoms many-numbered ;Age, that bough with snows encumbered. Gather, then, each flower that grows, Bear a lily in thy hand; Gates of brass cannot withstand One touch of that magic wand. Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, On thy lips the smile of truth. Oh, that dew, like balm, shall steal Even as sleep our eyes doth seal; And that smile, like sunshine, dart For a smile of God thou art. |