THE summer-tide swells high and O BEAUTIFUL new life within my full; I sit within the waving grass; The scented breezes o'er me pass, The thistles shed their silky wool. The ox-eyed daisies hail the sun, And sprinkle all the acres bright With golden stars of radiant light Amid the feathery grasses dun. The angel of annunciation say, Hail, blessed among women!" while I pray. all-creative Love! touches thy finger My leaping pulses to diviner heat. What am I, that thy thought of life should blossom In me, in me thy tide of life should beat? Beat strong within me, God-tide, in high passion, With quickening spirit earth-born essence greet! Fountain of life! flow through me pure and sweet. O all-sustaining Love! come close beside me, Me, so unworthy of this wondrous gift. Purge me, refine me, try me as by fire, Whiten me white as snow in glacier-rift, That neither spot, nor stain nor blemish darken These elements that now to being drift: Inspire, sustain me, all my soul uplift! Were I find no war in nature, though the wild Winds clash and clang, and broken boughs are piled At feet of writhing trees. The violets raise Their heads without affright, or look of maze, And sleep through all the din, as sleeps a child. And he who watches well, will well discern Sweet expectation in each living thing. Like pregnant mother, the sweet earth doth yearn; In secret joy makes ready for the spring; And hidden, sacred, in her breast doth bear Annunciation lilies for the year. term THERE came a breath, out of a dis- Too brief to all things? I have lived tant time. my hour, And die contented since for thee I die. OUTRE-MORT. SUPPOSE the dreaded messenger of death Should hasten steps that seem, though sure, so slow, And soon should whisper with his chilly breath: "Arise! thine hour has sounded, thou must go; |