The best of life would daunt me Ungirdled by her grace, And foreign demons haunt me Whene’er she hides her face. Up roughest steeps with laughter My airy joy doth soar, As wind-like I come after, And she flies on before.
All in the dark he crossed the border! All in the dark, for the lamp of faith Had never been used, and was not in order-- So all in the dark he encountered Death.
I like those words that carry in their veins The blood of lions. “Liberty” is one, And “Justice,” and the heart leaps to the sun When the thrilled note of “Courage! Courage!” rains Upon the sorely stricken will. No pains Survive when “Life” and “Light,” twin glories, run From the quick page to some poor soul undone, And beggar by their glow all other gains.
How splendidly does “Morning” flood our night! How the word “Ocean” drowns our insect cares, And drives a strong wind through our housed-up grief. While “Honor” lifts us to the mountain height; And “Loyalty” the heaviest burden bears As lightly as a tree a crimson leaf.
The wind of death that softly blows The last warm petal from the rose, The last dry leaf from off the tree, To-night has come to breathe on me.
There was a time I learned to hate As weaker mortals learn to love; The passion held me fixed as fate, Burned in my veins early and late-- But now a wind falls from above--
The wind of death, that silently Enshroudeth friend and enemy.
There was a time my soul was thrilled By keen ambition’s whip and spur; My master forced me where he willed, And with his power my life was filled, But now the old-time pulses stir
How faintly in the wind of death! That bloweth lightly as a breath. And once, but once, at Love’s dear feet I yielded strength and life and heart; His look turned bitter into sweet, His smile made all the world complete-- The wind blows loves like leaves apart--
The wind of death, that tenderly Is blowing ’twixt my love and me.
O wind of death, that darkly blows Each separate ship of human woes Far out on a mysterious sea, I turn, I turn my face to thee.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The House of the Trees & Other Poems, by Ethelwyn Wetherald