<^we/ LOVE'S MUSIC AND OTHER POEMS LOVE'S MUSIC AND OTHER POEMS BY ANNIE MATHESON h AUTHOR OF "THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY, AND OTHER POEMS" LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON AND COMPANY LIMITED Sbt Dunfitan's lijouse FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET 1894 HENRY MORSli STEF-HENS TO MY PUBLISHERS, PAST AND PRESENT, AND ESPECIALLY TO MR. SEPTIMUS RIVINGTON AND MR. STUART REID, THIS NEW HANDFUL OF LYRICS IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED. CONTENTS. PAGE A CHRISTMAS LYRIC i PASTOR IGNOTUS . 3 THE PROMISE OF SPRING 9 RONDEAU . . . . 1 1 LOVE'S Music 13 FAITH is THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR . 18 FROM THE GERMAN OF RUCKERT . . . .20 SUNSHINE 22 AN APRIL SONG 24 A DRAMATIC LYRIC 26 MIDNIGHT AND DAWN. (MIDNIGHT) . . . .29 (DAWN) 34 A TIME-WORN TUNE 39 PARTING 42 HUMAN BEAUTY 44 A NEW YEAR'S HYMN 47 MARRIAGE HYMN 52 Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE LE PRINTEMPS VIENT TOUJOURS . . . .55 BOATING SONG 59 THE MAN WHO SAW THE END OF THE JOURNEY . 62 GRACE BEFORE MEAT 66 MOONLIGHT 68 NEAR A LONDON ROOF 70 THE SINGLE SNOWDROP 73 THE SNOW 79 ST. JAMES'S DAY 81 SONG FROM A CHRISTMAS COMEDIETTA ... 83 " THE GREAT WAVE " 85 THE SATISFIED LOVER 87 A SUMMER'S EVENING . 90 A NEW YEAR'S SONG 93 A CHRISTMAS LYRIC. STILL, as of old, the wise men scan, Before the Epiphany through the night, The heavenly roof God gave to man : O Light, reveal to them Thy light ! Thou, who dost lead their journeying far Who learn Thy lore in stars above, And in our earth, herself a star : O Love, reveal to them Thy love ! A CHRISTMAS LYRIC. Redeemer of our human lot For ever since the world began, To those who serve yet see Thee not, O God, reveal Thyself in Man ! PASTOR IGNOTUS, HIS PLEA FOR CREMATION. "Ash** to Ashes? " / believe in the resurrection of the body'' WHAT ! Do this last disservice ? God forbid ! Let poison lurk beneath my coffin lid To work its direful mischief year by year, About the human world I hold so dear, And so dishonour me when I am dead ? 4 PASTOR IGNOTUS. Nay ! when the Master calls, let cleansing fire Set free the body of my soul's desire, As golden corn uplifts its shining head From husk that's slowly burned in earthy bed, Like to the golden grain and yet unlike ! I have a kindness for the friend and slave Which Love, the Master, at my birth-hour gave To serve my spirit till the death-hour strike ; But dearer than the husk the golden spike In full fruition at the last set free. Then burn my body to the glory of God, Nor let it moulder under daisied sod PASTOR IGNOTUS. 5 In hid corruption : Love, who gave it me, Knows well how satisfied my soul will be With that of which it is the semblance dim ! Dear dust that canst, as in a prison, hold, Locked in thy cells minute and million-fold, The force electrid, moulding brain and limb, When Death shall come, as Love has bidden him, To call the inmate, and thou'rt vacant left, It were unkind to thee, poor, faithful clay, To leave thee to unsightliness a prey, A body, of the spiritual body bereft ! 6 PASTOR IGNOTUS. No ! Fire, the servant, beautiful and deft, Shall mingle thee with blossom-breathing air. What ! leave thee as a source of pain and fear To those whose very touch to thee was dear ! Poor dust, I will not : Love, Who is great and fair, Made thee His temple and for thee will care, Great Love, Who seals dead faces with His smile ! For, clad in that thou veilest from our birth, Too human-beautiful for sinful earth, PASTOR IGNOTUS. 7 The body no corruption can defile, We shall remember thee a little while With grateful pity, and be glad thou art dead. Safe in thy walls, we make our heaven or hell, Betray the Master, Love, or serve Him well, In years none may revoke when they are fled, Learn this delightful world, its pain and dread, And something of its mystic sacrifice. O Love ! O Master ! When the pearl of price Lies at our feet, let no weak devil's device Make cowards of us, nay, nor selfish swine, PASTOR IGNOTUS. Since Thou hast called us to be sons of Thine, Immortal, incorruptible, divine ! Let even the body of this mortal life Be burned for Thy sake, Who its garb hast worn, That our new body may be bravely born, Unstained by memories of corruption's strife, And wrought, O Love } after the fashion of Thine ! THE PROMISE OF SPRING. O DAY of God, thou bringest back The singing of the birds, With music for the hearts that lack, More musical than words ! Thou meltest now the frozen deep Where dreaming love lay bound, Thou wakest life in buds asleep, And joy in skies that frowned. 10 THE PROMISE OF SPRING. Not yet may almond-blossoms dare A wintry world to bless ; Still do the trees their beauty wear Of glorious nakedness : But clouds are riven with the light Of old unclouded days, And Love unfolds to longing sight His sweet and silent ways. II RONDEAU. " Lady, I offer nothing I am yours." Colombe* s Birthday. WlLT thou have words, when silence deep So sweet a secret still may keep, And breathe into thy soul from mine A wordless message so divine It makes the heart of music leap ? Such silence, like celestial sleep, Hath visions, where, beyond the steep 1 2 RONDEAU. Dark ways of words, all things are thine : Wilt thou have words ? Dost thou then doubt, or fear to reap The ripened harvest ? Let me sweep All doubts away : ask thou no sign Look in the eyes that now incline Their silence tow'rd thee ! Dost thou weep ? Wilt thou have words ? LOVE'S MUSIC. (Die Welt ist ein Orchester.) THE world was called an orchestra : I see The careworn faces of the men who play Save when to Love their rapt eyes they uplift, To thank Him for his strange and heavenly gift, And look as though for very joy they pray, Since, but for Him, the music could not be. 14 LOVES MUSIC. Being Life, He quickens those whose ardour tires, And, more than all they play, He loves the players : Tears veil their eyes when most His glories shine, And they who catch His meaning, follow His sign, (Their deeds are music, and their lives are prayers,) While with His eyes He guides them and inspires. Then am I sad to know how much is stilled Before a melody can be divined, LOVE'S MUSIC. 15 Brave notes that, in their own good time and place, May in their turn some other cadence grace ; Mute sacrifice in toiling lives enshrined That sweetness may in others be fulfilled. But Love's own heart it is that suffers most, He feels the pang of every heart that breaks Amid a dissonance not yet resolved, And all the tense, wild pain, with joy involved, When, multitudinous, every note awakes In diapason, and the heavenly host, 16 LOVE'S MUSIC. As once of old when love was hid in grief, Bend down to listen to the choral earth, And veil their faces at the concord sweet Where pain and rapture, bliss and anguish, meet, Delight and failure, agony and mirth, And faith diviner for its disbelief. Love measured once the gulf 'twixt heaven and hell, Where clashed confusions of His broken law, Till unity in sweet diversity thrilled Order and time and sequence that He willed, LOVE'S MUSIC. 17 And, through the sacrifice which He foresaw, The mighty triune chord in music fell. In music fell ? In music, deepening, rose. Through all the unmeasured, boundless universe, The law of love, in its relentless might Binding in one remotest depth and height, Awakened, even in man's most bitter curse, Blessing and hope and joy's more joyful close. 18 FAITH IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR. A FAITHFUL lover, who has once divined The very self of her to him most dear, Much talk of her rejects with all his mind, Although to others it be proven clear ; Though good, yet if not like her in his eyes, He will not hold it true in any wise. Imperfect type ! who may express the sun ? Yet broken pebbles may flash back a beam FAITH. 19 Of those far heights that never can be won, Beyond the beauty of a seraph's dream. Silence is blest, but, while on earth we grope, Even a symbol may be quick with hope. Men who about an unseen altar serve And feel the Real Presence in their lives, In very worship from tradition swerve If with their vision of the Truth it strives : They would be rather trampled and down-trod Than know their faith a blasphemy to God. 2O FROM THE GERMAN OF RUCKERT. O THOU, my soul, my very heart, My sweet desire and pain thou art, Thou, still the world wherein I live, The heaven that wings to me can give, The grave wherein I buried deep My sorrow in eternal sleep ! Thou art my rest, the peace that's given Straight to my inmost heart from heaven ; FROM THE GERMAN OF RUCKERT. 21 Some worth I have, since loved by thee, Thy gaze makes fair myself to me. Uplifted, blessed, in thee I find My better self, my truer mind ! 22 SUNSHINE. UPON the white and blushing apple blooms In that old garden where the lovers walk, And on the cold and silent city tombs, Afar from talk, O clean and sweet and healing ! On our dust, On good and evil, just men and unjust, Divinely common, sent alike for all, Soft as a blessing, does the sunshine fall. SUNSHINE. 23 It kisses little children in the street, It lights the eyes of lonely men and sad, It draws new fragrance from the flowers sweet, It soothes the mad : Quiet, life-giving, joyous, good, Warm as the sense of human brotherhood, To which, since Love's new kingdom first began, Nothing is alien that is born of man ! AN APRIL SONG. ROUND the world and through the world, Under it and over, Like the light in dewdrops pearled, Or the scent in clover, Breathes the sweet and living breath Of a Love more strong than death. Grief will come and loss will come, Saddening many a morrow, AN APRIL SONG. 25 But through all, though often dumb, Blessing even sorrow, Love, that knits the souls of friends, Makes for all divine amends. Quench not Love, though pain and wrong Smite the dead and living ! Quit ye like true men and strong, Vanquish by forgiving, Nor in death itself let slip This life's heavenly fellowship ! 26 A DRAMATIC LYRIC. Now reigns the joyful May time, The air is blossom-sweet, As fragrant as the hay time When spring and summer meet ; But here in London's very heart, all radiant of spring, To a bay as blue as Naples a thought has taken wing. A DRAMATIC LYRIC. 27 I let the Thames go dreaming Beneath the crowded ships, Along the Hudson gleaming My boat her rudder dips, And under bright, unclouded skies, where all the world is young, I meet the faces Memory has often wept and sung. I clasp the hands I shall not touch Till deeper seas are past, I look on eyes that gave me much When I looked back at last ; 28 A DRAMATIC LYRIC. And deeper than all reason is the love that under- stands And leaves their tangled lot and mine in Love's unerring hands. 2 9 MIDNIGHT AND DAWN. (MIDNIGHT.) WATCHMAN, what of the night ? Wars and rumours of wars ! A moonless dark where the stars Still keep their rhythmic distance, With a calm, clear, cold persistence, Each from the other, Brother from brother, Circling for ever, and scarcely breaking 30 MIDNIGHT. The shadowless night with the light they're making, While the naked trees, that are gaunt and bare, Image cold Poverty, Want and Care. Watchman, what of the night ? Hunger and Death and Sin ! Mammon who rides to win, Steals now, as fiends are able, His steed from some pious stable, Vestryman's meeting His cant completing, MIDNIGHT. 31 Now with a Puritan rant habitual, And now as a saint of extremest Ritual ; Cursing the altar, or blessing the cross, Each heaps to himself his devil's dross. Watchman, what of the night ? Talk and rumours of talk ! Half maddened efforts to baulk Satan's play in the city With a flood of futile pity That rouses laughter 'Mid roof and rafter, Where he is daily buying and selling 32 MIDNIGHT. Beggarly lives in a poisonous dwelling ; Dives rampant and Lazarus stirred To a newborn hope in his hope deferred. Watchman, what of the night ? Gossip round chapel and church Of misery left in the lurch, Gazed at and made a show of By busybodies we know of. Many inherit The doubtful merit, Having made virtuous mild concessions, Of the rich young man who had great possessions MIDNIGHT. 33 Very near heaven in wish and thought, They turn in sorrow from Him they sought : And Love, for He loves them, turns His back On their pitiful failure and grievous lack And the shame that His gaze has wrought. ****** O Love ! Avenging Love ! Return, And bid the vast Gehenna burn ! Let death and hell at last be tossed Deep in the awful lake of fire, Beneath despair, beyond desire, All sin in flames of love expire, And not one human soul be lost ! 34 (DAWN.) O CHURCH of God, arise, And take Thy lamp of love, The light that never dies On earth, in heaven above ! With wisdom and with truth Keep quick and straight the flame, The light of love and youth, To save a world of shame. DAWN. 35 Burn up the gorgeous lies That steal the sacred oil, And bless with glad surprise The blinded sons of toil. Rebuke the devil's mart, The souls in prison release, Bind up the broken heart, Give joy and mirth and peace ! Whatever things are fair, Whatever things are just, Go, make them free as air And plenteous as the dust ! 36 DAWN. In every darkest place Let radiant warmth be shed Till in each dreary face The joy of God is read. The man whom devils tear From tombs of darkness take, And comfort with thy care The rich, who, moaning, wake. Tell every man on earth, The greatest and the least, Love called him from his birth To be a king and priest. DAWN. 37 Yet keep thy sacred right Still at the Master's board, His table of delight, To serve as served thy Lord ; To break the bread He broke, (His promise does not fail,) And fill for guileless folk His cup, the Holy Grail. One day thou shalt be clad, Not in a garb outworn That fools with envy mad Devour with eyes of scorn, DAWN. But in a vesture white As wings of heavenly dove, All woven of the light That is the light of love. Thy bridegroom tarries long, Thy poor are crushed and torn, Yet, He whose arm is strong Will come at early morn. 39 A TIME-WORN TUNE. THE breezes sweep like fairy brooms Over the fire of crocus blooms ; The snowdrops white have left their tombs, And Spring's a-coming ! Soon will the lilac trees unfold The hidden blossoms that they hold, Laburnums shake their clustered gold, And bees be humming. 40 A TIME-WORN TUNE. O wondrous world, that, year by year, Grows still more beautiful and dear, In spite of grief and pain ! how clear Thy heavens are laughing ! How sweet the air, how warm the sun, How bright the brimming rivers run, Dimpled by fishes one by one The sunshine quaffing ! There's many a heart to-day must ache, Or in the spring-tide glory break, Though sunbeams all the flowers awake, Soft kisses giving : A TIME-WORN TUNE. 41 But light and love may others heal Until, with slow surprise, they feel A Master-hand to-day unseal The joy of living! 4 2 PARTING. ( Written for Music?) GOD bless you ! God be with you still ! God keep you night and day When you are far away. My heart your name will ever bless, My thoughts the thought of you caress, And for you pray. Alone I now must climb the hill ; New faces crowd around, PARTING. 43 New voices near me sound : One dearest voice, and one sweet face That lights for me the darkest place, Will not be found. Yet shall their presence ever fill Dull Memory's day and night With longing and delight, Until, beyond this world of pain, All that is past is ours again, And faith is sight. 44 HUMAN BEAUTY. "lilied flesh Beneath her Maker's finger when the fresh First pulse of life shot brightening the snow." Sordello. FAIR shrine and symbol of God's loveliest creature, As beautiful in faultless form and feature As some white lily in the sunshine grown, Or blushing rose whereon the sun is shining, And over which the dewy winds have flown ! Such curves have silver clouds with rosy lining Through which the sun, to feathery gold refining, HUMAN BEAUTY. 45 Gazes in heaven's own light through earth's own cloud, So shadowing forth, and through the mist revealing, The very splendour fogs of earth would shroud. Sometimes, the source of heavenly light unsealing, Some tender thought of radiant help or healing The lovely eyes with wondrous meaning fills, And all the slender lamp, of God's own making, With hidden fire of love an instant thrills. Fair body, of the soul's own joy partaking, A temple where, at every new awaking, 46 HUMAN BEAUTY. A Presence burns within the enlightening flame, That flame of life mysteriously given, For ever sacred to the Holy Name ! Not sinless, yet, at last, when thou hast striven To obey the inward light, though tempest-driven, Renouncing heaven at the call of Duty, In flames, that then leaped higher, shall be riven The base-born bonds that threaten human dust ; And forth shall flash the strange immortal beauty Of that Shekinah given to thy trust ! 47 A NEW YEAR'S HYMN. CONSUMING Fire ! Eternal Love ! Who grievest at Thy children's tears, Yet, seeing further than the years, A deeper deep, a height above, A life nor time nor space can move, Dost light unseen by shadows prove And with a rainbow veil the sun Across the deluge guide the dove ! 48 A NEW YEAR'S HYMN. Soul of our life and of our love, Thy will be done ! Years come and go and sweep away, The landmarks that we strove to make : Through what they leave and what they take, Build Thou the life that's more than they, And fill with light of heavenly day All we have built, now cold and grey As cobwebs in the darkness spun : Breathe health into our work we pray : Beyond the best we dream or say, Thy will be done ! A NEW YEAR'S HYMN. 49 We trust not for ourselves alone But for thy boundless universe ! Evolve the better from the worse ; Wake fountains in the flinty stone ; From fields the cruel scythe has mown Draw fragrance : when the swallow's flown And summer's past for every one, By ripened harvest, slowly grown From seed that patient hands have sown, Thy will be done ! Not only through heroic pain Divinely met and bravely borne, E 5o A NEW YEAR'S HYMN. Not only by the crown of thorn, The loss that touches highest gain, The fires that vanquish every stain Till purest loveliness remain ; Not only by the battles won Through deadly strife that seemed in vain,- We pray not only in our pain, Thy will be done ; But in the hour of joy supreme, The gift of powers Thou dost control When lightnings flash and thunders roll, The hour diviner than our dream. A NEW YEAR'S HYMN. That heals our life and makes it whole, Do Thou Thy will from pole to pole, O Source of Joy, our Guide and Goal, Above the shadow still our Sun ! In many a life's unlettered scroll, Through bliss of body and of soul, Thy will be done ! MARRIAGE HYMN. ETERNAL Love, for ever near, Bless Thou our marriage-feast, And though a human voice we hear, Be Thou, O Love, the Priest ! Bless Thou the bridegroom and the bride, That men who see their life May love the Love in whom abide This husband and this wife. MARRIAGE HYMN. 53 Thy love we breathe in every breath ; From Thee we dare not part : Oh, triumph over time and death, And keep us in Thy heart. At every meal, we pray Thee bless The bread Thou breakest, Lord, And fill with wine of happiness The cup upon the board. Thou, who fulfillest all our needs, Around, within, above, 54 MARRIAGE HYMN. Oh, fill with praise our work, our deeds, Till life itself be love! Praise Love, the God of quick and dead, Praise Love, in Man made known, Praise Love, the Spirit, dear and dread, One God, yet not alone ! 55 LE PRINTEMPS VIENT TOUJOURS. As one who loves may seek to find . Some name by all the rest unfound, For her who dwells within his mind To comfort and to bless, As though the secret of the sound No other might possess ; So we in alien words enwind, In foreign phrase caress, 56 LE PRINTEMPS VIENT TOUJOURS. The hope wherein all joys abound. Is it Winter ? Nevertheless " Lcprintemps vient toujours, toujours, Le printemps vient toujours" If Fortune's wheel, in moving round, Give us our turn to be abased, And low we lie, are straitened, bound, While storms our treasures rust, Great Love, Who checks our careless haste, May, more than Justice just, Dull Fortune's eyes, Himself, astound, That turn her wheel she must : LE PRINTEMPS VIENT TOUJOURS. 57 We rise above the wintry waste, With a song that spurns the ground, " Le printemps vient toujours, toujours, Le printemps vient toujours" If some from hope to hope are chased, Nor covet any worldly wage, By Duty's sternest mandate placed Where selfish hope must die, Still smiting with a noble rage The passions they deny, With courage and endurance graced Though all they longed for fly, 58 LE PRINTEMPS VIENT TOUJOURS. They triumph still from youth to age, Till Death as Love is faced : Then, free at last, for joy they sigh, " Le printemps vient toujours> toujours^ Le printemps vient totijours" 59 BOATING SONG. DUETT. Now, thy leisure take ! Sing, comrade, sing ! The day Has taken wing, And fled away, Aivay ! 60 BOATING SONG. Mountains clasp the lake In strong embrace ; Fair Moon, Through dim blue space, Fling, golden, soon, Thy boon ! Waves in the light awake, Soft falls the oar, While, sweet, Our voices soar, And mingling meet And greet ! BOATING SONG. 6 1 Glow, Stars in the sky, Till, deep, the lake Burn bright, For your dear sake, The livelong night, In light ! Town, where the bridges lie, With roof and spire, Bid shine Each lamp and fire ! One hearth is mine And thine! 62 THE MAN WHO SAW THE END OF THE JOURNEY. I HAVE known anguish, loss and disappointment, Touched the hand of madness, met the hope that hoped not, Yet do I love thee, O world, my mortal dwelling ! Oh, how I love thee, sweet life that's mixed with sorrow, Fain to lose no fraction of thy tempestuous faring ! THE END OF THE JOURNEY. 63 Still do the milestones spin past ere I cancountthem : Soon will the journey with all its strange adventures, Heaven-sent encounters, sweet coincidences ; All that makes a poem, vivid, ample, mystic ; Soon will it be over, and will not be repeated. Voices, faces, heart-beats, all that makes the drama, I shall have to leave them : though they are mine for ever, They will be transfigured : I would fain remember Their poor earthly weakness, dear in imperfection :- Stay, O Time, thy chariots ; O Memory, seize thy tablets ! 64 THE MAN WHO SAW Friends, who in a cottage have lived and loved together, May sigh when they leave it, though bound for a palace. Is it warm with memories, quick with life familiar ? Earth, ere I leave thee, parting from my dearest, Hand in hand a moment, let us gaze and love thee ! ***** Come, O heavenly Healer, Thou who once hast dwelt here, Who didst love those sisters in the home of Lazarus, And the man who sought Thee, yet who failed Thy bidding, THE END OF THE JOURNEY. 65 Thou who once didst wrestle in the earthly garden, Thou hast known our manhood and Thou alone canst help us ! Not a radiant angel do we ask, or seraph ! We are not celestial, and we need Thy comfort. Being God, Thou seest ; being Man, thou knowest : Let us lean a moment, as the son of thunder Leaned, when death awaited Thee, ere the cross was ready. 66 GRACE BEFORE MEAT. (Affectionately dedicated to Charles Lamb.) NOT that the life itself is less than meat, Not that we give more thanks for being fed Than for the thoughts, the love, of quick and dead, Or all the gifts of art, do we repeat The sacred Name of Love before we eat ; But that the Master taught, in breaking bread The grace of common brotherhood is said, One heart in Love we are, though millions beat ; GRACE BEFORE MEAT. 67 One body, quickened by one living soul, Through every changing age and clime and race, By death regenerate, while aeons roll, And light immortal lights the mortal face ; One vital loaf, love leavening the whole, If broken, pledged in Love's eternal grace. 68 MOONLIGHT. ( Written for Music.) O LOVE, I never more may see Until the veil shall part I Z~/ That hides Thee where Thou art, Come at the cool of eventide And stand a moment at my side, My own Sweet Heart ! MOONLIGHT. 69 Come when the red rose, dewy sweet, Hides in the twilight dim ; And silver-clear, the rim Of the new moon gleams on the blue, Come, tell thy lover sad and true Thou lovest him ! For earth's glad lovers there may be The bitter care and fret Of love imperfect yet : Our love, my dearest, crowned with pain, Has passed beyond this vexed refrain, Nor can forget. NEAR A LONDON ROOF. (IN EARLIEST SPRING.) MY bird, still coming, night and morn, With songs to make me glad, Unlike the nightingale forlorn, Your voice is never sad. No bird of June could sing more sweet To my delighted ears : NEAR A LONDON ROOF. Jl You give me wings for weary feet, And smiles to banish tears ! What angel singing in the light Where highest joys endure, Could bless me with more sacred might, Or sing a bliss more pure ? What vanished lives have lent you voice, And artless heavenly art, To bid me for their sake rejoice And be of braver heart ? 72 NEAR A LONDON ROOF. Nay, you are just a living spark Of Love's own joyous fire, Lit in a world that's often dark, To kindle souls that tire ! 73 THE SINGLE SNOWDROP. (JANUARY 20, 1892.) WELL may we heap the fragrant flowers Above our Brother's grave to-day ! Death's principalities and powers Shall never take our faith away ; Yet may we weep : With all its care and strife, A beautiful and wondrous thing is life. 74 THE SINGLE SNOWDROP. But while the radiant wreaths we heap, My heart remembers what long since One told me who had helped to reap God's field for peasant and for prince, And felt, amid The mystery and strife, How strange the pathos of our human life. He saw, being to a burial bid, A pauper burial, sordid, sad, How some one on the coffin-lid Had laid one snowdrop, all they had, God's flower of spring ! THE SINGLE SNOWDROP. 75 With all its care and strife, A beautiful and wondrous thing is life. Alike to Commoner and King, Come Death and Love ; that snowdrop white, A poor heart's utmost offering To the lone dead, was Love's delight ; And Love had kept, Amid the toil and strife, One flower unsullied by the dust of life. Some loving heart it seems, had wept To see Death look so like despair, THE SINGLE SNOWDROP. Where poverty unhonoured slept : God's lovely snowdrop made it fair. Let a tear fall : Amid the care and strife, How beautiful, how wonderful is life ! Long since in Pilate's judgment-hall, By suffering, Brotherhood was crowned ; Have we no Brothers now in thrall, Where Love is daily scourged and bound ? God ! my heart aches : Amid the sin and strife, What right have we to all the joys of life ? THE SINGLE SNOWDROP. 77 And from my inmost soul there breaks Prayer for our human Brotherhood, For prince and pauper, whom Love makes, And Death makes, Brothers. By the rood Of Mary's Son, Join hands amid the strife ! O Risen Love, through love uplift our life ! So shall we bless his day that's done, Our Prince's ; and, amid her woes, The Queen, whose Mother-heart has won New love 'mid fortune's fiercest blows, Though hard bestead, 78 THE SINGLE SNOWDROP. Will feel, amid the strife, How loss may deepen hope and quicken life. One race, we share one daily bread, And if one suffers all must grieve : Love is the Home where dwell our dead A home no parting can bereave. Love makes a heaven of many an earthly hell : By Death, His servant, strong to help and heal, To prince and pauper He has much to tell, Which in no other way He might reveal. Life here is sweet, 'mid care and pain and strife, But there, O Love, with love Thou crownest life ! 79 THE SNOW. WHEN freezing winter smites the whirling globe, I softly fall, a veil for bridal maid, Above the graves, where, like a folded robe The worn-out bodies of the sick are laid. As noiseless as the deepest love I fall, As mute and tender and divinely pure ; When sunshine comes, I hide away from all In roots that make the coming blossoms sure. 80 THE SNOW. For many a man who must as outcast fare, Having no roof, and bidden still move on, I make a bed where he will lose his care And wake with sweeter words to think upon. For are not softest snow and fiercest flame The angels and the ministers of One Who writes the symbols of His secret Name In all the universe of star and sun ? Yet man, who loves, through one heroic deed, One self-renouncing joy no terrors dim, More of that Name may in one instant read Than all the shining worlds can whisper him. 8i ST. JAMES'S DAY. IN GRATITUDE TO THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. OF good physicians an untiring three Have helped and healed, and, like thee in their names, O son of thunder, faithful-hearted James ! Have followed Him who toiled in Galilee, And served by day and night like John and thee ; The first God took : thoughts that are tears he claims 82 ST. JAMES'S DAY. They are such grateful tears that no man blames, And two are left, unwearying friends to me. Thy head, Saint James, was severed by the sword It may be harder inch by inch to give, Through weariness more terrible than pain, The life of life to the sick, even as our Lord Of strength and virtue, that the dying might live, dave and was weary, again and yet again. SONG FROM A CHRISTMAS COMEDIETTA. HE is a fool who thinks he loves in vain, Love, lost or won, is still eternal gain. Fate cannot sever Hearts once made one that they should dwell alone O soul, what thou hast truly made thine own Is thine for ever. 84 SONG FROM A CHRISTMAS COMEDIETTA. No love is wasted and no light is lost, Who gives himself, however great the cost, Is richer giving ; And those we love are ours, whate'er their lot ; Those who are dead, and those who love us not Among the living. Lo, loving the unloving here below, A wider love within our hearts will grow For all about us : Our best beloved are ours for ever, though Their lives might be as sweet, for aught we know, Were they without us. "THE GREAT WAVE." 1 BEING a woman, sometimes holy art Seems less to me than the sweet poem of life : I look at some glad mother, or young wife, Toiling all day for those who are next her heart, Or a brave man who in the crowded mart, Tempted for those he loves, yet, to the knife, Resists the evil in the sordid strife ; And think how they have chosen the better part : 1 Painted by H. G. Hine, Vice-President of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. 86 But when I gaze on magic wrought like this, And feel the salt wind of the freshening sea, And watch the great wave's curling crest rise up Over the seagulls guided through the abyss ; I feel how great a thing great art may be, And how God fills the artist's loving-cup ! THE SATISFIED LOVER. Yet> being but a half-truth^ therein lieth danger." OLD ROMANCE. THE lesser loves that come and go # And stir the eddies of the stream, Not love are they, true lovers know, But shadows of a lover's dream. With quivering energy they come, With beating heart and restless brain, Their noisy plea is never dumb For passing bliss or transient pain. 88 THE SATISFIED LOVER. But if a deeper love befall, Enduring love, divinely willed, Man knows not that he loves at all, The sum of being is fulfilled. He thinks he loves not, but his feet Move lightly tow'rd the goal he sought, And toil is of a sudden sweet, And hardship full of tender thought. The Eternal Love that quickens all, Our love being kindled by His breath, THE SATISFIED LOVER. 8c Still vibrates through hell's fiery wall, And at the last will vanquish Death. And when on earth our souls abide In Love, the universal Soul, So deep and silent moves the tide, We are whole, and know not we are whole. A SUMMER'S EVENING. SWEET yearnings unexpressed, That cannot rest, Are making music Full of drowsy pain And strange delight O waken yet again The dreamy visions bright That, almost ere I saw them, took their flight. A SUMMER'S EVENING. 91 Joyously sings the thrush ; Melodies rush Over my spirit. Fragrance stealeth up Into my heart, From many a snowy cup Of lilies white, where dart The mellow sunbeams and fresh breezes start. Long lines of opal cloud Rosily crowd In sunset glory. 92 A SUMMER'S EVENING. Over distant hills The twilight creeps, Till a soft quiet fills The valleys : turmoil sleeps, And peace divine the dewy landscape steeps ! 93 A NEW YEAR'S SONG. IF Time were all, each passing year would bring A deeper shadow underneath his wing To dark the New Year's vernal blossoming, If Time were all ! If Time were all, then, seeing youth depart, New years would bring new heart-ache to the heart, And plunge the deeper Death's perennial dart, If Time were all ! 94 A NEW YEAR'S SONG. But Time is but a dream, and Love abides, Love, the one fact, one truth with many sides, More loving often when His face He hides And shadows all. Great Love is God : through holy bondage, He Makes all His children beautiful and free For that new golden year when Love will be Our joy in all. "THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY" AND OTHER POEMS, BY ANNIE MATHESON. Published by Rivington, Percival & Co., King St. , Covent Garden. The Saturday Review, Nov. 8, 1890, says : "This poem has an unimpeded flow, and is obviously inspired by a profound convic- tion of truth. . . . The poet's gifts are, however, more clearly pro- claimed in the briefer poems, in such pretty songs as ' Lucy to Ravenswood,' or the pathetic stanzas ' Memory's Song.' " The Spectator, Dec. 6, 1890, says : "It is the profession of a noble faith, not by any means what the words are sometimes used to mean, and both language and thought are not unworthy of the theme." The Athenaeum, Oct. 25, 1890, says: "We wish Miss Matheson's book contained more ... of such simple and touching verse as 'Memory's Song.'" The Academy, Dec. 5, 1891, says : " The chief poem in, this volume is an able vindication of the Christian religion. . . . The sufferings of the poor, the joys of children, the brightness of nature, the pathos of human experience, are echoed or reflected in her verse." The Speaker, Dec. 6, 1890, says: "Miss Matheson has so succeeded as to deserve our gratitude, and we cordially recommend her little volume to all who know the value and exceeding rarity of true songs of faith and love. " The Guardian, Feb. 25, 1891, says: "The poem is singularly impressive, and invites study. Together with the ' Handful of very simple Lyrics,' by which it is accompanied, it may be cordially recommended to all lovers of thoughtful verse." The Westminster Review, Oct., 1890, says : " Some of the love songs, and some of the translations, from Heine and Goethe especially, are worthy of note." The Scotsman, July 7, 1890, says : "Miss Matheson's work has the distinction of style and workmanship as well as of sincerity of feeling." The Leeds Mercury, July 21, 1890, says: "Not for some time have we come across a book of poetry of greater promise, or one in which the best kind of culture is more apparent. . . . Lovers of poetry ought not to overlook this volume, for Miss Matheson is not a singer of borrowed notes." The Melbourne Age, J^ily'2.^, 1893, says: "Miss Matheson . . . need have no fear when she ventures to take her place beside the humanitarian poets of the age." CHISWICK PRESS : C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. SITY OF CALITOENIA LIBEABY, THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of 50c per volume after the third day overdue, increasing to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. Books not in demand may be renewed if application is made before expiration of loan period. ; SENT ON ILL DEC 4 1998 U. C. BERKELEY 75m-7,'30 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY