Then recess past, alack, To learn my part. These lessons Thou dost give To do, to bear, To get and share, To work and pray And trust alway. What though I may not ask To meet my need. That shall please me. Some day the bell will sound Some day my heart will bound, As with a shout That school is out I homeward run! LIFE 'Animula, vagula, blandula."-EMPEROR HADRIAN BY ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD Life! I know not what thou art, But this I know, when thou art fled, As all that then remains of me. O, whither, whither dost thou fly, Where bend unseen thy trackless course, And in this strange divorce, Ah, tell where I must seek this compound I? To the vast ocean of empyreal flame, Dost thou thy flight pursue, when freed Wait, like some spell-bound knight, Through blank, oblivious years the appointed hour Life! we've been long together Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; "Tis hard to part when friends are dear, Perhaps 't will cost a sigh, a tear; Choose thine own time; Say not Good Night, — but in some brighter clime Bid me Good Morning. THE NEW YEAR LEDGER BY AMELIA E. BARR I said one year ago, "I wonder, if I truly kept I took a ledger fair and fine, "And now," I said, "when days are glad, "I will not heed the changing skies, Why, then it shall be understood "Or if to any one I love A blessing meets them on the way, That will to me a pleasure prove: "When hands and brain stand labor's test, And in 'red letter,' too, I'll write Those rare, strong hours when right is might. "When first I meet in some grand book A noble soul that touches mine, And with this vision I can look Through some gate beautiful of time, "And when pure, holy thoughts have power To touch my heart and dim my eyes, And I in some diviner hour Can hold sweet converse with the skies, Ah! then my soul may safely write: 'This day has been most good and bright.'" What do I see on looking back? A red-lined book before me lies, With here and there a thread of black, A shadow it must be confessed, And I have found it good to note In some dim future far away. Just try my ledger for a year, Then look with grateful wonder back, THE QUESTIONS BY BYRON BEACH Ah, Life, what art thou, With thy smiles, and with thy fears? And what is Love, That kisses Youth, and lingers through the years? And what is Death, That chills each heart, and stills all troubling fears? Dost thou not know, thou wanderer of mine? Dost thou not harken to the breath of Spring And hopes that thrill and pine? Dost thou know enough, that Life is good; That Life is joy untold, As free and broad as sunset ray? A clay it is, for thine own hand to mold; Ah, foolish child, to ask it in thy mood. What it is, thine own heart knows, |