[Picture: Portion of School-house, Garden Front]
A THOUSAND year is nought to prayer, One day, so GOD it will: So the chapel fair, in GOD’S clear air, Looks calmly from its hill;
And true and bold the schoolhouse old Before it sentinel, With close at hand a trusty band Of comrades guards it well.
Each morn they meet, the young, young feet, They lightly come and go, A changeful stream, that still doth seem The same, and still doth flow.
The stream shall run while shines the sun, And still the buttressed stone Shall hear the beat of young, young feet, And count them all its own.
The fair sun shone, but ghastly and wan There came a spectral dream; The stone stood fast, but a dim fear passed Through buttress, and roof, and beam:
With sad, sad heart life did depart, A ghostly silence fell; With sad, sad heart they turned to depart, And—farewell, home, farewell.
DARKEST clouds drop tender rain, Every leaf and blade is fain Its own jewel to obtain From the casket of its pain.
And the thunder, black as night, Down descends in orbs of white, For the sun to fill with light, Tiny chambers of his might.
Precious beads of hope are pearled On each sorrow through the world, Softest dews of peace in showers Lie beneath the clouded hours.
THE ice froze cold, as cold as death, Yet runs the stream below; The very spring breathes bitter breath, But still the flowerets blow. Nor shall it perish from the land, The living seed they bore, As forth they fared, that pilgrim band, As pilgrims went of yore.
Lead, river, down the mountain glen, Glide ’mid the sunny slopes; Now lose thyself, now come again, E’en like a pilgrim’s hopes. And careless rivulets with their peace Smiled on the passers-by, From many a valley, where the trees See but their own dear sky.
So swept they on a great bright plain, A charmèd breadth out-laid, Where mountains rounded to the main A charmèd circle made; And northward couched a huge hill dream, Which ofttimes, as it lay. To heave and pant in sleep did seem, Beneath the sultry day.
And leaning up against the hill, Whose headland, purple-black, The southern waters, as they fill, Kiss daily, and fall back, A simple hamlet, nowise planned, Puts out a long arm white, Where level sea and level sand Scarce know each other’s right.