IX. Before the beginning of years Time, with a gift of tears; Grief, with a glass that ran; Pleasure, with pain for leaven; Summer with flowers that fell; Remembrance fallen from heaven, And madness risen from hell; Strength without hands to smite; Love that endures for a breath; Night, the shadow of light, And life, the shadow of death. And the high gods took in hand And a measure of sliding sand From under the feet of the years; And froth and drift of the sea; And dust of the labouring earth; And bodies of things to be In the houses of death and of birth; And wrought with_weeping and laughter, And fashioned with loathing and love, With life before and after And death beneath and above, For a day and a night and a morrow, That his strength might endure for a span With travail and heavy sorrow, The holy spirit of man. From the winds of the north and the south They gathered as unto strife; They breathed upon his mouth, They filled his body with life; They gave him light in his ways, And love, and a space for delight, And night and sleep in the night. In his heart is a blind desire, In his eyes foreknowledge of death; He weaves, and is clothed with derision; Sows and he shall not reap; His life is a watch or a vision 4. C. Swinburne. X. LIFE AND DEATH. 'What is Life, Father?' 'A Battle, my child, Where the strongest lance may fail, And the feeble little ones must stand In the thickest of the fight.' 'What is Death, Father?' 'The rest, my child, When the strife and the toil are o'er; The Angel of God, who, calm and mild, Says we need fight no more; Who driving away the demon band, Bids the din of the battle cease; Takes banner and spear from our failing hand, And proclaims an eternal Peace.' Let me die, Father! I tremble and fear To yield in that terrible strife!' 'The crown must be won for Heaven, dear, In the battle-field of life: My child, though thy foes are strong and tried, He loveth the weak and small; The angels of Heaven are on thy side, And God is over all!'" Miss Procter. XI. Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis ovum. Hor. Epist. I. 2. River, river, little river, Bright you sparkle on your way, River, river, swelling river, On you rush o'er rough and smooth, River, river, brimming river Broad and deep and still as time; River, river, rapid river, Faster now you slip away, Swift and silent as an arrow River, river, headlong river, Sea, that line hath never sounded, Sea, that bark hath never rounded, Mrs. Southey. XII. CIRCUMSTANCE. Two children in two neighbour villages Two lovers whispering by an orchard wall; A. Tennyson. XIII. Day dawned: Within a curtained room A lady lay at point of doom. Day closed:- A child had seen the light; She rested in undreaming night. Spring rose :-The lady's grave was green; Years fled:-He wore a manly face, And then he died! Behold before ye B. W. Procter. |