LIBRARY UF CONGRESS. 
 
 81iolf. 
 
 .i-^ 
 
 UNITKI) STATi:S OT AIHIOIJHA. 
 
'i^J^m 
 
SHEAVES 
 
 A COLLECTION OF POEMS 
 
 3^ 
 
 BY 
 
 HARRIET CONVERSE 
 
 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 V .- ' ... 
 
 G. 
 
 P 
 
 . PUTNAM'S 
 
 SONS 
 
 
 27 
 
 & 29 WEST 23D STREET 
 
 
 
 1S82 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 , ..-.:. 24 1832 > 
 I ^ No.../.fr..o..fo.l iy 
 
T'3 /isj 
 
 Copyright by 
 HARRIET CONVERSE 
 
 18S2 
 
 Press of ^^ 
 
 G. P. Futnatfi's Sons % 
 
 \ 
 
 Ne^v York 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 The Year . . . • 
 
 The Days of Dawn . 
 
 The Days of Morn and Noon y 
 
 Nearing the Twilight . | 
 
 Within the Night . . •) 
 
 To a Field Daisy 
 
 Day by Day 
 
 The Sunbeam . . . • 
 
 The Shadow 
 
 Lost Voices . 
 
 Unfolded Hopes 
 
 Regal October 
 
 Luna di mi Alma 
 • Driftings 
 
 Lure . . • • 
 
 Weary . . . • 
 
 The Winter Night . 
 
 Waiting . . . • 
 
 To Thyself 
 
 The Quaker Maiden . 
 
 Retrospect . 
 
 Endure . . . • 
 
 Tranquillity 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 lO 
 12 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 
 21 
 
 23 
 26 
 28 
 32 
 
 33 
 36 
 
 38 
 39 
 41 
 46 
 
 47 
 49 
 56 
 
 5S 
 
IV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A Sunset ix March 
 
 Good- Night 
 
 Revealing ^ 
 
 Recognition 
 
 A Regal Day 
 
 Reveries 
 
 Solitude . "] 
 
 Entreatment I 
 
 Suhjection . j 
 
 Devotement j 
 
 My Ruth 
 
 Entreat Not 
 
 The Dead Bird 
 
 The Easter Daisies . 
 
 Of Peace 
 
 After Twilight 
 
 The Heart 
 
 Untaught . 
 
 May 
 
 Thy Heart and Mine 
 
 My Heart and Thine 
 
 Consolation 
 
 Signification . 
 
 Reviewing . 
 
 The Shadow Land 
 
 Vigils 
 
 Nativi'i^y 
 
 Maturity V 
 
 Identity ; 
 
 Eternity J 
 
 59 
 C4 
 05 
 06 
 
 67 
 70 
 
 73 
 73 
 74 
 
 75 
 76 
 7S 
 So 
 
 83 
 85 
 92 
 
 95 
 97 
 98 
 
 99 
 
 lOI 
 
 103 
 105 
 106 
 109 
 112 
 112 
 112 
 113 
 113 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 
 fAGE 
 
 Memory 115 
 
 Despair Not . . 118 
 
 My Rose .... 120 
 
 A Trusting Heart 122 
 
 Recompense 124 
 
 Tears 126 
 
 My Ingle .... 128 
 
 When ...... 130 
 
 To A Pansy 132 
 
 An Allegory 133 
 
 The Lost Sunbeams 135 
 
 Tangles ... 137 
 
 Life 138 
 
 Death ... 139 
 
 Thou ! . . . 140 
 
 Burying the Blossom 141 
 
 To A Butterfly . " 143 
 
 Waiting in the Shadows 144 
 
 Wooing .... 145 
 
 Not Forgotten . . 147 
 
 Meditations on Deatjj 148 
 
 Unity . 153 
 
 Peace . 154 
 
 Compensations ...... 155 
 
 Confidence 156 
 
 Dreams 157 
 
 Hope ... ... 158 
 
 Submission , . . , . 159 
 
 Substitution . . ..... 160 
 
THE YEAR. 
 
 THE DAYS OF DAWN. 
 
 LARION wind its fellowship is sounding 
 Throughout all space where echoes are re- 
 sounding, 
 And calls for nature's handmaid to adorn 
 A vernal robe of green for spring new-born. 
 
 To whispers in the creeping moss it dies, 
 And in the fibres of its bed it lies 
 In momentary leisure, while on its breast 
 It traces patterns for the mountain's crest ,* 
 Then, flighting to the topmost, interweaves 
 Its verdant honors through the budding leaves. 
 
 In softer tones, through southern balm it breathes, 
 Enticing timid flowers from out their sheaths, 
 That with a cautious air — of boisterous wind 
 
 I 
 
2 SHEA VES. 
 
 And winter still in fear — their folds unbind ; 
 
 Then, distrustful, venture to the sun 
 
 Through beams — their silken beauty still unspun — 
 
 To languish in his bold alluring rays, 
 
 Beguiled through softness of the maiden days 
 
 To wearing hues of glory in his name, 
 
 And basking in the love his glow-gleams claim. 
 
 From slumbers of the winter night, and dreams. 
 Awakened by the babbling of the streams, 
 The meadows, in obeisance to their song 
 And low soft murmurings, the joys prolong, 
 Responding welcome through the grace of flowers 
 Adorned with rainbow hues of dewy showers. 
 That sun looks through when tinting all the bloom 
 That decks the valley in a sweet perfume. 
 
 The trees, arrayed in white of bridal dress — 
 
 The coy young blossoms in their bashfulness — 
 
 To fruitage of the year by sun are wed. 
 
 Then o'er the grassy plains a robe they spread 
 
 Of virgin leaves, and decorate a path 
 
 For summer flowers — the spring-time's aftermath. 
 
THE YEAR. 3 
 
 The birds — congratulating all in love — 
 
 With all their little hearts in anthems prove 
 
 The harmony of nature's unity 
 
 And law, in praiseful peace and purity , 
 
 Then from their matin song, with sober mien. 
 
 To shades of wood they turn, while yet unseen 
 
 By any stray inquiring beam of day 
 
 That might within its coverts lay, 
 
 And build a shelter on the greening bough 
 
 That swaying when the summer breezes blow, 
 
 Will rock the birdlings in the mossy nest. 
 
 The feathering young 'neath the mother's breast, 
 
 That leaves the home and plumes its wings in voice. 
 
 Uniting in the chorus of loud rejoice. 
 
 In praise of might and strength, the love and power 
 
 Of nature's joy, announcing the spring-tide's hour ! 
 
SHEA VES. 
 
 THE YEAR. 
 II. 
 
 THE DAYS OK MORN AND NOON. 
 
 HE spring unveils the curtain of its green 
 To (juaff the nectar of the Summer Queen, 
 Who comes apace attended by the flowers 
 Through tranquil shadows of the morning hours, 
 And rosy flushing of the Eastern skies, 
 While in her arms sweet-smelling fragrance lies. 
 
 Climbing to the sun on ladders of its beams, 
 The flowery kingdom rests in rosy dreams 
 Through day, and laves in dew that fills its 
 
 cells 
 In perfumes spiced in overflowing wells, 
 That cloister in the stillness of the night. 
 When flower to flower their sweetness re-unite. 
 
T/IJ-: YliAK. 5 
 
 The meadows, willi the daisy bloom impearled, 
 Unsheathe their [grassy lilades, with ensigns furled ; 
 The colors of ihcir ])urnished gold Xa win 
 Through concjuest of the harvest glow within. 
 
 The wheat is filling up its milky grain 
 
 That scythes will level to the earth again, 
 
 With all its gleesome, joyous retinue : 
 
 The ragged sailors of the shore, the jolly crew 
 
 That wanders after poppies in the field, 
 
 For dews inebriate from the breath they yield ; 
 
 Intoxicated in their sportive wiles, 
 
 They search for daisies and their modest smiles. 
 
 To find their eyes close shut in grave disdain 
 
 From followers and revels of a train 
 
 That seeks the night, when folded in their love 
 
 All blossoms sleep in dreams of the sun above. 
 
 The shadows deepen far within the glade 
 Where wooded beauties lie within the shade, 
 And sombrous mellowness, that, fearing sun 
 y\nd gleaming butterfiies, his beamings shun ; 
 The hidden sweetness that the wild bee finds 
 
.S7/A . / / /'.S. 
 
 W'ilhin tlu'ir < iips ;is roiiiid his thighs h.c winds, 
 I'oi hoiu'V'c'd molds, his liiiL',;d suiiiiiuT g;iii^ 
 111 haivi'sl, (If ihc winU'i's wcMiy wane. 
 In this si'chision, in niajcslic j)ri(U> 
 And i;ran(UMiis ol wild nalwir's lace, al)idc 
 riic lori'sl trcts, ihe town-rinL;- niasls tlial loom 
 W ithin ihe sea ol sjiaee, whose siiadows (^loom 
 rhroiij^hoiil tlu" valley, when tlie sun sinks low 
 iK'Nond llu'ir iid_L;c-s, in (lie nij;lit bi'low. 
 
 The streams are mar;j;ined by the lush green grass, 
 That dips within tlu' rii)ples as tlu"y |)ass. 
 Saluting, hentling in the sununer bree/e, 
 W'hoM- rustlings whisper in \\\c forest trees, 
 W'hiK' pebbled song in dreamy undertone 
 Is lluining lor tlu- sim a plaintive nioai\. 
 And bids laii-well to inradowed wold and wood. 
 Then onward speeds to oeean and its mighty Hood. 
 
 Twilights lengtlu-n, and the shadows slowly (all ; 
 riu- nestling birds in ( ooing love tones eall 
 lor mates, that ho\c'r still in airy flight 
 Afar from broodlings m '.he dusk of night ; 
 
7 //A y/:Ah'. 
 
 The sun secrns loth to leave the summer days, 
 And floods the valleys with his golden rays, 
 And in allegiance — loyal to her grace — 
 While Nature sinks to rest, around her face 
 He casts a veil of gray and misty shades. 
 That Night withdraws, wh';n all her st.arry rnairU 
 Are watching Earth in sleep of sweet repose, 
 While o'er her bosom the folding flowers clo.-.e. 
 
SHEA VES. 
 
 THE YEAR. 
 III. 
 
 NEARING THE TWILIGHT. 
 
 IIROUGH mellow beams of the sun's declin- 
 ing rays 
 
 And ripe abundance of autumnal days, 
 The Harvest Matron, in her golden sheaves, 
 Her tribute from the fruitage now receives. 
 
 The languid hours escorted by the morn, 
 
 Weary with fragrance of the summer born, 
 
 Recline within carnation clouds of rest. 
 
 And with a listlessness toward the west 
 
 They gaze, through dimness of a veil at Night, 
 
 As if entreating shadows for the summer's flight. 
 
 Nature, adorned in honor of the feast. 
 
 In robes of decorated grandeur dressed, 
 
 Has crowned the fields from treasures of her gold. 
 
 While she her vineyards with purple robes enfold ; 
 
THE YEAR. 9 
 
 The forests, beautified with glowing hues, 
 
 To summer's shadows bid their fond adieus ; 
 
 The meadows, freighted with the bearded grain, 
 
 Yield their burdens to the harvest train ; 
 
 The birds are flitting to the sunny clime, 
 
 And blossoms of the south wind's summer-time ; 
 
 The streams are hushing voices of their song 
 
 To join the silence of the summer's throng ; 
 
 The roses pale in the glow of autumn's hue ; 
 
 In dust the lilies lay in solemn rue ; 
 
 In lowly sweet submission all the flowers 
 
 Have turned their faces from the sunshine hours ; 
 
 Yet through the stilling vale a voice is sounding 
 
 Throughout all space where echoes are resounding, 
 
 That calls the reapers with thanksgiving to adorn 
 
 The prayers for the Harvest newly born. 
 
I O SHEA VES. 
 
 THE YEAR. 
 IV. 
 
 WITHIN IllK NUJHT. 
 
 !y"«™]rril leaden lines the skies are overcast ; 
 iMBj Convoying Winter with a trum])et blast, 
 The winds are dolefnl in their moans of woe 
 And swooning sighs, while chill the tempests blow. 
 
 The sun abandons Morn with but a glance, 
 While Night, more friendly as the shades advance, 
 I'olds round the shivering hours a robe of gray. 
 Pressing to her bosom the wintry day. 
 
 In woe the trees stretch forth their nakeci arms, 
 Divested of their fair autumnal charms, 
 .\nd trembling, by the angry winds are swayed 
 To and fro in the moody, wintry shade. 
 The streams that babbled in their tuneful songs 
 
/■//A yJ:Ah-. 1 I 
 
 Of vernal joys that siirnrncr sun prolongs, 
 Are silenced in the Imsh of Winter's deatii, 
 Through mandate of its voice and icy l;rcatli. 
 
 In shrouded silentness all nature lies ! 
 Where Summer bloomed beneath the azure skies, 
 The tempests sweep the deserts of the snow 
 'rii.a drift seimlchral o'er dead flowers below, 
 While Winter casts o'er Year a mournful veil, 
 'i'lirough moan and sob and sullen wierdly wail. 
 
SHEA I '/iW. 
 
 ' 'I'o A I'II':li> daisy. 
 
 IIOU l)ii<;ht " c'f ol clait- " that is opiMiipi; to 
 llu" sun, 
 
 W'itlim thv ;;()l(lcMi disk \\\c ilay liatli iiist l)c>^iin . 
 riioii tlir littU- wandtMi'i ot a lowly birth. 
 So hiimhU l)cMuliiii; with the wind to niotluT cMilh, 
 As it in «;iat('lnl luMu-diit ion ot ( lod's praise, 
 I'-xti-ndini; to her hosoni all tin llorcts' rays, 
 lu'Si-rchinL; nurturi" tiom the dew within hi-r 
 
 breast — 
 in trndrrncss o\ all thv h>vo and solf-bctlllt'St — 
 I'oi dnst, wluMi'in lh\ nndfr>;rowinu; t(Mi(h-ils lay. 
 W'lnlr thv wi-ani-il blossoms toUow tlu> sun by dav 
 
 A U\i;rnd ot the Mytholoi;ic lore 
 
 RiM ites thr translonnalion to thy starry (lower 
 
 l'"roin a drvad's beauty by \ irtunnnis deity 
 
 I )| buds and blossoms who tron\ a woiul nymph 
 
 ri'seuiHl thet 
 
 Imprisoni-d in her heart —and savi'd thy i;olden eye 
 
i() A j<//:LJ) jjA/:;y. 13 
 
 ]'or glancing in l.ovc's licart for Lovfj's reply, 
 When some lorn rnairlcn sighs for I, five's revealing 
 Of some sweet mystery />f Love's concealing, 
 While thy [nearly leaves are tolling the silent knell — 
 As one by one to earth they fall through numbered 
 
 spell 
 Of incantation- " He lovers rne ; he loves me not." 
 'io be with him his Heart or be by him forgot ; 
 Should Fate decree the answering " No," through 
 
 sighing breath 
 On sod below, thy lidiess eye will rnourn in death 
 'I'he wounds of Sorrow, that plucked thee from the 
 
 day 
 'i o threnodize a measure in Love's pathetic lay, 
 
 'I'o Royalty and Throne thy sweet and modest face, 
 In peace o'er heart of doubtful rest, hath lent a 
 
 grace, 
 While courtiers multiplied thy beauty in device 
 On sheening arms — by bannered virtues to entice 
 The sunshine of the Queenly srnile from royal 
 
 throne. 
 
14 SIIEAJ'ES. 
 
 She of Anjoii — Margaret — the unhappy one : 
 Unostentatious thou, transported from the fields 
 To exile, in i)omp and blazonry of shields 
 To glitter in the sun immortalized through pain 
 Of never giving baek to sun his glance again ! 
 
 Entwined with laurel leaves in thy simplicity. 
 In homage to a genius — true nobility, — 
 Thine eye was molded by the skill of artisan 
 From virgin gold, thy florets from the moonlight's 
 
 wan 
 Of silver mine, and coined in a glorious crown 
 With peace in restfulness was ever looking dov/n 
 Through lucid drops, the consolidated dews 
 And thousand lustres of the diamond's gorgeous 
 
 hues ; 
 From Marguerite to Marguerite, the pearl of France, 
 This tribute from the Scot thy beauty did enhance ; 
 The leaves that nature wreathes thus harmonized a 
 
 name, 
 With pearls of sea and land for "Pearl of pearls" 
 
 in fame, 
 
TO A FIELD DAISY. 15 
 
 Undergrowlh of Nature's heart, and bloom that 
 
 robes the sod, 
 Transfigured through a mortal skill to speak of 
 
 God, 
 And symbolize in beauty, j^oesy, and song, 
 Thy captive life, dear Daisy ! that Love and Fame 
 
 prolong. 
 
 When on the wayside in thy humble purity 
 Thy faithful eye is ever paying sovereignty 
 To sun — though to thy root the thorns and briers 
 
 cling 
 Through stones that choke thy breath — a gladness 
 
 dost thou bring. 
 Dear Daisy, to my heart — on mountain, in the 
 
 shade. 
 Or on the cool refreshing sod within the glade. 
 With thistles and with thorns that grow beside the 
 
 road ; 
 Where'er thou art, thou speakest to my soul of 
 
 God. 
 Thy bending to the winds, thy looking at the sky 
 
1 6 SHEA VES. 
 
 With cheerfulness through storms in thy adversity, 
 
 Thy closed lids at night, thy brightened eye at morn. 
 
 At sun's 'light glancing day by day with love new- 
 born, 
 
 Bespeak the glow that cometh through a sorrow's 
 night, 
 
 The benediction of God's justice and His might. 
 
I^AV BY DAY, 17 
 
 m 
 
 DAY BY DAY. 
 
 AY by day the sunshine comes and goes. 
 The moaning sea tide ebbs and flows, 
 
 Yet Time the unmeasured, measuring all, 
 From slow advance the swift retreat will call. 
 
 Day by day Time gives to Pleasure wings ; 
 To Pain, what leaden feet he brings ! 
 He cradles Hope — yet gives not sweet repose 
 To Fame, till Death a monument bestows ! 
 
 Day by day Time, counsel of the wise, 
 Sees Folly with its bells devise 
 The chime that rings aloud Ambition's name 
 In peals of joy, to echo knells of shame ! 
 
 Day by day Time lends to Friendship hands 
 That write for Sorrow, on the sands 
 Where tides will come and go, the name of Love 
 That seas will drown and leave no sign to prove .' 
 
1 8 SHEAVES, 
 
 Day by day Time rolls the scroll of Life, 
 
 Yet man heeds not in worldly strife 
 
 The vanished years, till Death demands his claim — 
 
 The mound-lines of the clay that mark his name. 
 
THE SUNBEAM. I9 
 
 THE SUNBEAM. 
 
 N the pulse of the wind, on the winged clouJs 
 it lies, 
 Voyaging the day through the arch of its skies. 
 
 From the dews of the night it calls the young 
 
 flowers 
 To greet the gray dawn and its morning hours. 
 
 In a cradle it rocks in the foam of the sea. 
 And tosses in spray in frolicsome glee. 
 
 In the surge of the waves, on their uppermost crest^ 
 It caresses the winds in their moaning unrest. 
 
 Within the red heart and the blush of the rose 
 It gleams in the perfume of a day-dream's repose. 
 
 With gold of its glowing in the dimples of fields 
 It jewels the grain that the full harvest yields. 
 
20 s//J':a]'j:s. 
 
 It ghuUlcns the bridal, it briglUcns the tonih. 
 Witli llowers of its j^romise, tliroiigh beams in its 
 t;looni. 
 
 With the ardor of noon, all over the earth, 
 It nourishes the life t)f creation's new birth. 
 
 Piirsuinij; the shadows of the gray sombre night, 
 
 It rifts throiigli its darkness in the flood of its light. 
 
 All through the days of Time's endless flow, 
 
 iMoni tlie dusk of its ebbing its golden beams glow. 
 
THE SHADOW. 21 
 
 THE SHADOW. 
 
 MPOSING a silence on the waves of the sea, 
 It stains the gray darkness that tempests 
 decree. 
 
 It summons the stars with their majestic night 
 To call forth their Queen in shimmering light. 
 
 From the feverish glow of the summer's sun skies, 
 In the still, windless forest in twilight it lies. 
 
 It purples a hood for the violet's face. 
 
 And feathers the ferns with frondy-leaved grace. 
 
 In the peace of the lily it worships the rose, 
 Refreshing their sweetness in languid repose. 
 
 It braids in the waters a willowy grace, 
 
 When the quivering leaves are caressing its face. 
 
 It flees from the sunshine to hide in the pines, 
 
 \n their siientness guarding their evergreen shrines. 
 
?2 S/IKAJ'KS. 
 
 It touches the lids of the siin-L^azing llowors, 
 While Ihey weep in their dews for the day's golden 
 hours. 
 
 It folds o'er the valley and Inuls a din\ veil. 
 When the i;ray tardy skies in tlie twiliglit are ]iale. 
 
 In creation and iieaeefulness all over the earth 
 ll nurtures in niysteiy the sunlii;hl of birlh. 
 
 All throu^j,h the nii;hl where Time entlless tlows. 
 Though a sigh oi a sunbeam, a ])eace it bestow?;. 
 
LOST VOICES, 23 
 
 LOST VOICES. 
 
 ir, yc lost voices lliat never come l)ack again, 
 Where do ye wander in tender and weary 
 pain ? 
 Voices of gladness that welcomed the morning sun 
 When Life was a temple that Time had just begun, 
 Tiie sliout of a freedom tliat knew nol a care 
 When joys of the heart were resounding everywhere' 
 
 Voices of chiIdhoo<l tliat i)ralth:(l untaught by fears, 
 That stifle the heart in the sorrow of tears. 
 Where are ye now ? In the echoes of mournful tone 
 Tolling with dreary care life and its solemn moan ; 
 Or lingering in chords that were lost in a song, 
 Strugghng in vain the sweetness of life to [)rolong ! 
 
 Tiie lost tones of voices that welcomed us (hiy by 
 
 day, 
 Till the truants from heart we left them on the way 
 I'orgotten and lost forever in worldly strife, 
 
24 SHEA VES. 
 
 Sad, sad and pitiful, gone from our future life ! 
 How silent and cold the empty and vacant heart, 
 Where voices were lost, that wander in pain apart ! 
 
 And ye of the greetings gentle and changeless in 
 
 love. 
 In brightness of sunshine free as the sky above. 
 In stillness of twilight whispering soft and low. 
 Pathetic and tender, in sighs that true lovers know ; 
 Dearer and still dearer grown in love's winsome spell, 
 Compassionate, watchful, and true, when shadows 
 
 fell ! 
 
 Where are thy sunshines ? Lost in the How of Time's 
 
 tide ; 
 Thy twilights are hushed. Love is no longer the 
 
 guide ! 
 Though the heart calls aloud, its pathos is lost in a 
 
 sigh, 
 For we stretch forth our hands when the shadows 
 
 are nigh, 
 Reaching for love-tones in the whispering past. 
 Where our hearts resurrect but the phantoms at last ! 
 
LOST VOICES. 25 
 
 All, yc lost voices, will yt- never again come back ? 
 
 Will ye wander forever lost in a weary track ? 
 
 In the peace that will be in the higher world of 
 
 love. 
 Will ye linger in souls blessed in the realms above ? 
 In a glory arrayed, will ye welcome us there. 
 Where shadows are lost that follow us everywhere ? 
 
26 SHEA VES. 
 
 UNFOLDED HOPES. 
 
 |ANY a bud enfolds a hue that never sees the 
 
 sun ; 
 
 Unfriendly thoughts have blasted hopes that love 
 
 has just begun ; 
 Many a moss-bed is a couch where rip'ning acorns 
 
 fall, 
 That grown to oaks, o'erspread a shade where 
 
 blights have cast a pall. 
 
 Many a stream has babbled love to neighboring 
 flowers in dell, 
 
 That running seaward lost itself in moan and surg- 
 ing swell ; 
 
 Many a tree disdains to bend that falls before the 
 storm. 
 
 While flexile reeds submissively to frigid blasts con- 
 form. 
 
UNFOLDLD J J OPES. 2/ 
 
 Many a life with pride is launched that bears a 
 
 golden name, 
 And drifts through waste of watery woe a wreck of 
 
 bitter shame ; 
 While adverse winds have tempests blown o'er craft 
 
 of humbler sail, 
 That, tossed through spray of lashing waves, outrode 
 
 the angry gale. 
 
 Many a growth of flaunting ease betrays a sterile 
 soil, 
 
 While generous impulse shackled dies in ruin of de- 
 spoil ; 
 
 Many a heart its glory wins e'en through a chast'n- 
 ing rod, 
 
 And yields its sorrows, tears, and sighs to will of 
 gracious God. 
 
.syyy-;. / / 'es. 
 
 REGAL OCTOBER. 
 
 C r()P)l<'. R days arc regal days, for trees are 
 51 robed in hues 
 
 Of gknving splendor gorgeous, sucli as sovereign 
 death imbues. 
 
 A canopy of tinted boughs liangs o'er the wood- 
 kind bed, 
 
 iMubroidered with a dash of goUl mingled with 
 naming red. 
 
 The mai")le leaves are falling fast, veined with the 
 
 llush of death, 
 To wreathe o'er earth a cha])let touchetl by winter's 
 
 frosty breath. 
 The oak trees, monarchs of the wood, are turning 
 
 russet brown. 
 And yielding tributes, one by one, to twine with 
 
 autumn's crown. 
 
REGAL OCrOBKR. 29 
 
 The fields are sere, the gcarners filled, the reaj)ers' 
 harvest hymns 
 
 Are echoed through the dell where nests hang emp- 
 ty on the limbs ; 
 
 The streams are haunted witii a sigh of mufricrl 
 summer songs, 
 
 Where willov/s drop their yellow tithes that ride the 
 waves in throngs. 
 
 The hawthorn hedges, hanging low, with shadows 
 gloom the path 
 
 Through meadows where no daisies grow in sum- 
 mer's aftermath ; 
 
 And feathery down of tliistles floats where clovers 
 bend in glee, 
 
 When swayed by winds their perfumes rose to tempt 
 the honey-bee. 
 
 A melancholy stillness breathes through hush of 
 
 autumn's day, 
 And brooding o'er our saddened hearts may find 
 
 some hope astray ; 
 
30 SHEA VES. 
 
 A hope that babbled with the stream its love-song 
 
 to the dell, 
 Ere spring and summer 'trothed the vows that 
 
 blossomed wild flowers tell. 
 
 Yet with the sighing sorrows some slight compensa- 
 tions come : 
 
 Though fields are bare the reapers glean grain for 
 the harvest-home, 
 
 The sun that burned the grasses brown ripened the 
 fruits of spring, 
 
 And wild-wood birds have loved the nests where 
 shredded vines still cling. 
 
 The streams, where float the fallen leaves that eddy 
 
 round in drifts, 
 Have sunbeams rippling o'er their tides that break 
 
 in golden rifts. 
 The flowers that droop in red decay have danced in 
 
 summer's breeze. 
 And stars of heaven with lustre shine on naked 
 
 forest-trees. 
 
REGAL OCTOBER. 3 1 
 
 October days with mellow glow still yield to earth a 
 crown, 
 
 Resurgent through the dead dry leaves and blos- 
 soms fallen down ; 
 
 But gentle spring again will come, and winds witli 
 southern balm 
 
 Will softly sway the budding trees so mournful now 
 and calm. 
 
3- SHEA VES. 
 
 LUNA DI MI ALMA! 
 
 WINING round me with thy soft arms, 
 
 A summer to my heart, 
 Through budding of its sweet charms 
 That blossom where thou art, 
 Luna di mi alma, how is heart to know 
 When the day of winter comes — only by its snow ? 
 
 II. 
 
 Murmuring in my ears thy fond tones 
 
 Through harmonious chime, 
 Thy voice seems tolling sad moans. 
 Is it winter time ? 
 Linia di tni alma, in the winter hours 
 Will my heart its summer know — always, by the 
 flowers ? 
 
DRIFT! NGS. 33 
 
 DRIFTINGS. 
 
 OME lives are numbered years that flow tc 
 
 sea, 
 
 Where — changing with the tides — the yesterdays 
 Are merging with to-days in waves that crave 
 A shore where promises are writ in sand 
 That memory chiims, and will defend, though lost 
 In chaos of eternal dividend ; 
 A sieve where Time, with rigid cruelty, 
 Drains dregs that drift, impelled by force of fate. 
 Within the current of an endless wave. 
 Through incompleteness, to eternity ! 
 
 A trust grown precious, rich in love and joy, 
 Through faithless stewardship impoverished 
 To abject, beggared desolation ; 
 The heart that lost the birthright of its love 
 Tlwough sacrifice of regal confidence, 
 And lavished riches of its generous hope, 
 Returned through woe, a prodigal to life, 
 To mourn its wan existence till its death ! 
 
34 s//F..t 1 7;.v. 
 
 'I'hc sc-lf-S()\vn llowiMs thai Mossomcd in tlu- sun, 
 In hhisliiiiL; (>r \\\c licnirs' ii'd-K-tti'iiiii; Idvo, 
 Lying in their ladoil shrouds in (KmiIi 
 That sliortiMis incniory's tablet to a tln-ani • 
 W'hcio, risini; in its ( haos, sick' 1)V side 
 111 resum-ctions ot inrirmit\., 
 
 Through broken moonbeams, sliivering in the space'. 
 They garhind s])eetres of the lieart witli i rowns, 
 riie vain dehisions ol a haunlt-d lite I 
 
 The altar iiims ot a eoxi'uant ; 
 
 Negieeti-il and overgrown with wei-ds, raid;, 
 
 I''lo\V(.M li'ss, odoiless, wet with dews that dii]> 
 
 r'rom staring cypress trees. Watchers ot tlu> night 
 
 That closes 'round this shrineless pilgrimage, 
 
 \ e knew no saint or priestlv i\\c that wvd 
 
 The hush ol peace in unity t(^ lite ; 
 
 Nor perfumes of the censers swing o'er \'ows 
 
 In everlasting fragrances of truth ! 
 
 The tuneless judse that throbbiul through ira^on's 
 
 sway. 
 In stern propriety, io cheat the heart 
 
JjRJJ'JINiJS. 33 
 
 By undulating narrowness of time ; 
 Stilling, in the rust of songlcss, stern (lcr:ay, 
 Echoes tliat. f.liokcd lhron;jh stifling in their l^irtii 
 
 The hopes grown listless witli the tire (jf age, 
 That lie in shadows of toil and care ; 
 'J'he f>aling phantoms of heroie love, 
 'I'hat sought with longings of an eager soul 
 ']"<j clasp another life in climbing strength, 
 And rear to heavenward an immortal grrnvlh 
 I'or fulness of eternity ;ind life-. 
 Tlie vine of rest that shelters with its green, 
 A stone — that quarries lend to every name — 
 (Carved in granite furrows for the- sign 
 'I'hat marks the tidings of dej>arted clay. 
 Gone down within the refuge of the tomb, 
 i^or resurrection of a perfect day ? 
 
36 SHEA VES. 
 
 LURE. 
 
 I. 
 N my neighbor's garden a bright red rose was 
 growing, 
 
 Fair to see ! 
 
 Her blossoms ripe to bursting, with fragrance over- 
 flowing, 
 
 Not for me ! 
 
 From out my chamber window I watched her nod- 
 ding grace, 
 
 Far away ! 
 
 Giving back the sun his kisses through her blushing 
 
 face, 
 
 All the day ! 
 
 III. 
 
 The burning sun, at noontide, with love crept in her 
 
 heart, 
 
 Bud of morn ! 
 
 For she. alas ! with panting breath, had torn her 
 
 leaves apart. 
 
 With her thorn ! 
 
LURE. 37 
 
 IV. 
 When night had come, sweet rose was drooping, gone 
 
 her bloom. 
 
 Sad her sigh I 
 
 Sun had fled — forgotten rose, alone in direful 
 
 gloom. 
 
 Left to die ! . 
 
38 SHEAVES. 
 
 WEARY. 
 
 ]EARY of wishing, yet never to win : 
 
 \'cMitli drifting backward, old ago nisli- 
 
 ing in ; 
 Toll nio, () Time's tide, from wlionco (omo tho 
 
 years 
 'I'hat surge through my life witli sorrow and tears. 
 
 \Veary of seeking, yet never to find : 
 While o'er my brown locks the silver threads wind ; 
 Tell me thy mystery, invisible hand, 
 That, touching my brow, such furrows conuuand. 
 
 Weary of ])lodding, yet ucver to gain : 
 Treading the sands, trackless, endless, and vain ; 
 l")esert of age, wliere my limbs, waxing cold. 
 Drag but a burthen, for life 's growing old. 
 
 Weary, so weary, yet comes not the night : 
 
 I 'm tired with the travel and bruised in the fight ; 
 
 Tv)ttering and feeble, oh, lighten my woes. 
 
 And grant my soul. Lord, a blessed repose. 
 
/■//A IV /N 77'. A' AV67/7'. 39 
 
 V\\V\ W'W'VVM NIOHT 
 
 I^'I\'\ I N l'>I) in l.'iircr clirrK.'S, the unwilling sun, 
 'Neath low'ring winter rlouds, seems da- 
 U) shun ; 
 Ohli(|ue his gaze .'it nifjin, with hinguid gh:anis, 
 He hastens t'ward thcj west with slanting be.'irns. 
 
 Near edge oi southern sky he linger, still, 
 As if to rn(;ek the hours of wintry ehill ; 
 Wiiile sober dusk sedately comes aj;aee, 
 To veil with sombre shade all nature's face. 
 
 f look upon the night, and shadows lise, 
 With se-mblances of dreams tliat shroud my eyes ; 
 The requiem, bf;rne by winds, weird moans irn}).'irt 
 Like voire of wandering soul with ghrjstly heart. 
 
 The trees with outstretched arms — sj^ectres trans- 
 formed — 
 Invite the- sullen winds, and bend deformed; 
 Tlie pines, whose bristling spears defy the blasts, 
 Rise — giant s'niinels — o'er forest fasts. 
 
40 SHEA VES. 
 
 Where hedges outline meads, a vestal throng, 
 In garb of snowy white, seems ling'ring long. 
 As if to watch the dead — the summer's flowers. 
 Whose blossoms dialled time and marked the hours. 
 
 From out the gloomy wood, through shadows come 
 A mournful train of captives, stricken dumb ; 
 A multitude that beckons spring to call 
 Aloud, and bid their fetters loosened fall. 
 
 The flowers, the babbling stream, the daisied sod, 
 The tasselled corn, the fields where poppies nod, 
 With summer days and waving seas of bloom. 
 Embrace, then vanish in the cryptic gloom. 
 
 O night ! with frowning clouds close my sad eyes, 
 While yonder dreamy pageants shrouded rise ; 
 Thy icy sceptre bears a frosted breath. 
 And changes summer's life to winter's death ! 
 
WAITING. 41 
 
 WAITING. 
 
 m 
 
 ENEATH the snowy veil of winter's sombre 
 grace, 
 
 Unresurrected beauties lie in sleepful peace ; 
 The sun evokes from shadows, in the genial rite 
 Of consecrated wedlock, the day from winter's night : 
 Spirtualized in beauty, in the strangeness of the 
 
 hours, 
 Nature casts aside her winter hood to gaze on 
 
 flowers. 
 Wondrous in rotation, that come in bright array, 
 In fields of frosted browning, where snowy patches 
 
 lay. 
 
 As if waiting in the subtle change for signs, 
 
 She spans the horizon, and looks within her shrines. 
 
 Her trees are looking upward as if they loved the 
 
 - sky, 
 And wait in solemn silence her word, to beautify 
 In adornment, with a verdure, all their sober gray, 
 To harmonize their green abreast of golden day. 
 
42 SHE A VES, 
 
 The deep blue azure of lier sky seems fading down 
 In paling exi)e(:tation — as if of winter's frown 
 In fear, — while opal hues prepare the drifting clouds 
 For summer's glory, in its still unlifted shrouds, 
 Tiirough suggestive balmy winds, in their sighing 
 
 breath 
 Luxuriant in the sober realm of winter's death. 
 
 With faithful scrutiny she gazes on her crowns — 
 i'he august lofty mountains that winter yet im- 
 
 browns, — 
 Then with a thoughtful care, she bids their cata- 
 racts llow 
 In sijarkling jewels to the waiting streams belov/ 
 In the slumbering valleys of her emerald green, 
 To wreathe around her flowery meads their silver 
 
 sheen. 
 With gentle, dexterous hand she touches all the 
 
 hills, 
 And lo ! a sudden substance the quiet shadow fills; 
 A mantle falls in graceful folds on all the land, 
 The jewelled robe of Nature's fair and dainty hand ! 
 
WAITIXG. 43 
 
 With gladsome air and smiling, sweet, uncovered 
 
 face, 
 She walks abroad, her pathway filled with fragrant 
 
 grace ; 
 The listening buds will blossom when her footsteps 
 
 near, 
 While the sunbeams, summoned from the shadows, 
 
 all appear 
 In answer to her call, dispensing through their 
 
 beams 
 Her reflected blushes, where'er the flower land 
 
 dreams. 
 Uprising in her stateliness and matronhood, 
 She leaves for summer's sun the valley fields and 
 
 wood ; 
 Then onward to the sea — restless \n solemn moans, 
 The voices of its majesty and undertones — 
 She treads with dainty steps close to its sandy 
 
 -^shore. 
 Where sullen waves surging say : '* Evermore 
 For thee the day and night, for us are all the 
 tides " ; 
 
44 SHEA VES. 
 
 And the sea calms down where the land its main 
 
 divides, 
 Hushing its weary tones on the spring-time's broad 
 
 highway, 
 The answering cadence of Nature's own sweet lay ; 
 While the ships sail on in their commerce to and 
 
 fro, 
 Through still and quiet tides — the winter's hushed 
 
 reflow ; 
 Then reclining in her bowers through her perfumed 
 
 days, 
 Reviewing all with ceaseless care — her broad 
 
 arrays, — 
 Sweet Nature rests, commanding through her toiler, 
 
 Spring, 
 The sowing of the broadcast seeds that harvests 
 
 bring. 
 
 Hour by hour generous Nature the day recalls 
 That comes and goes, while the sea tide rises and 
 
 falls. 
 Though we mouni for all the past yet the sun goes on 
 
WAITING. 45 
 
 Silently claiming his own, unmindful of none : 
 
 See then where the shadows lay what the sunbeam 
 
 finds 
 In the green and jewelled fillets that Nature binds 
 Around her sombre crowns, that Winter veils with 
 
 snow, 
 All purified from dimness in the summer's after- 
 glow ! 
 
 Thus Nature waits in gentle, true, submissive will. 
 In her deep, profoundest slumbers, Nature still, 
 Triumphant reigning, never ending in all tii^rie, 
 Enduring ever, abiding always, and sublime, 
 Still creating, still renewing, in majestic power 
 Forever new, forever old, forever more 
 Obedient, thine, Oh, Nature ! all in one 
 The universal law from God's creating throne. 
 
4^ SHEA VES. 
 
 TO THYSELF. 
 
 IggT^lN tiie army of the multitude 
 
 EPJ Take thou thy pla.ce ; 
 
 Among the host bear thou for ensign 
 
 The holy mace ; 
 Faint not, dear heart, unto thyself alone 
 
 Will come the grace ! 
 
 In the battle of the faithful ones 
 
 Is sorrow told, 
 
 Through threnodies where God's own mercy 
 
 Is manifold. 
 
 Faint not, dear heart, unto thyself alone 
 
 Will mete be doled ! 
 
 From tlie darkness of the valley's sliade 
 
 Tl^.ou hast a])pealed. 
 
 While yet beyond the mountain's highness 
 
 Light is concealed. 
 
 Faint not, for day unto thyself alone 
 
 Will be revealed \ 
 
THE QUAKER MAIDEN. 47 
 
 THE QUAKER MAIDEN. 
 
 w 
 
 ER dreamy penitential face 
 Is shadowed by a human grace 
 Her solemn, lustrous, spiritual eyes 
 Reflect the shades of earthly skies. 
 
 In sober folds her golden hair 
 Has prisoned sunbeams in a lair ; 
 With aspirations in her dreams 
 Young Love is' singing gentle themes. 
 
 Within the kerchief o'er her breast 
 A lily lies in swooning rest ; 
 A rose-bud languished there at morn 
 In fevered blushes sad and lorn. 
 
 No clamoring sighs disturb her peace ; 
 Inaudible in calm they cease ; 
 Restrained within a proper sphere 
 They wait in silence and in fear, 
 
48 SHEA VES. 
 
 While yet the sun is following day, 
 Lest one lone wanderer go astray, 
 And, lost within a reckless thought, 
 Betray the secret Love has brought ! 
 
RETROSPECT. 49 
 
 RETROSPECT. 
 
 Retrospect ! thou solemn limner of the past, 
 Dash thou thy sombre shades with rosier tint ; 
 Where gloom thy clouds o'ercasting beams of sun, 
 With royal purple lavish generous hues, 
 To signify the golden glow beyond ; 
 With gentle hand outline the years of Time, 
 For bolts of Fate will rive the gaps of woe 
 In every life, and time-grown mantling green, 
 Will hide the chasm where a buried grief, 
 And idols, shattered by a vandal hand, 
 Were thrust — lest with a voice of lamentation loud 
 We cry bereaved at tear-begotten wounds ; 
 For though the dead hear not, the living heart 
 Has echoes where their voices resurrect 
 In sepulchres of Memory's silent tomb. 
 Trace thou the blooming vines of passion-flowers— 
 The tender symbols of a sacrifice — 
 Where'er the hungry dust of grief may lie, 
 To feed the thirsty sorrow with their dews ! 
 
50 SHEA VES. 
 
 Lo I with thy leaden grays — the sullen frowns 
 That margin thy array of tears and storms — 
 Frugal be thou ! Shadow thou not the flowers 
 That held ill golden cups ambrosial dew, 
 Where butterflies — my vanities — have supped 
 Intoxicating numbers for their dreams ; 
 Such foster growth in naught save gracious light. 
 Thy limnings deepen not to dark'ning clouds, 
 For chilly breath would shiver all their glow. 
 And moths, poor moths, would flutter to their death. 
 Leave halo of the sun, for Pity's sake, 
 Where I can lay them down in beams to rest ! 
 
 Thou lookest through my eyes, when sad tears flow, 
 
 O Retrospect ! for horoscopic view ; 
 
 So faintly numberest thou the stars above, 
 
 That dimness of a mist has intervened, 
 
 Obscuring gleams of Hope's celestial rays. 
 
 Leaving no fixed light for hearts revolve ; 
 
 The bleak and desolated main below^. 
 
 Seems naught to me but dreariness and strife, 
 
 And meditations of a woful cirief ; 
 
RETROSPECT. 51 
 
 Mirage that doubles through my weeping eyes 
 The festal garb of joy to shroud of death ; 
 Where bells have chimed in joy now dirgeful tones 
 Seem numbering one by. one my years of life. 
 
 Not so I pray thee count my days — through tears ; 
 
 But with thy inner vision improvise, 
 
 For nonce, a garden where a promise glows. 
 
 Were heart of mine suggesting lines for thee, 
 
 'T would ask for flowery beds where roses grow 
 
 Of fervid red, not buds with mossy hoods 
 
 O'er faces hanging low, confessing love ; 
 
 But royal, courtly queens, that govern hearts, 
 
 Bestowing love as guerdon with a thorn \ 
 
 That wounds, if avarice of conquest grasps j 
 
 Too quickly — in the eager greed of life — 
 
 With fickle power, a Clytie slave to win 
 
 For madly following day by day the sun. 
 
 And 'round the sovereign bloom (quite near the rose) 
 
 The modest sisterhood — the little nuns 
 
 Who veil their sweets in shade — the violets, 
 
 Amid the gorgeous blushes of the court, 
 
5 2 SHEA VES. 
 
 Would grace perfume with blue-eyed beauty's i/eacc, 
 The wild-wood loveliness of nature's heart, 
 That lends, in truthfulness, to quiet lives, 
 I'he rest tliat even blossoms crave in shade ! 
 
 Within the sanctuary of the flowers — 
 
 Where queenly roses ever rear the shrine — 
 
 Set sweet carnation pinks, whose spicy breath 
 
 Will offer incense to forget-me-nots, 
 
 Through kisses, fanned by winds o'er beds of moss. 
 
 The altar where their virgin love will rest 
 
 When locked in death, they blend in perfect glow 
 
 The amaranthine hue of purpled life. 
 
 As gentle summer showers renew the hues 
 And give new life to blossoms trodden down, 
 While sighing breezes whisper hope agam, 
 Through all the weakness of a siiih concealed, 
 My pride would ask of thee, O Retrospect ! 
 For poppies, scarlet-hued — a garden row ; 
 In fields and meads, with rustic joy, they strive. 
 Outgrowing grain, to reach the noonday sun ; 
 Before the winds that blow the chnlY and tares. 
 
RETROSPECT. 53 
 
 With wheat they bend, and claim the reaper's blade, 
 Caressing scythes in death, unfaded still ; 
 In garden beds, with prideful scorn they nod 
 To all the flowers alike, nor choose to win 
 A love with perfumed breath, or coaxing sighs ; 
 With burning faces to the sun they dream 
 Through day of rivalling beams, and when the night 
 Has come, submissive bend, and, shrouding ])omp 
 With flaming robes wrapped round with self-content. 
 Inhale with sighs their own narcotic sleep ! 
 
 With peaceful self-content all flowers grow ; 
 
 The uninvited weeds will force their way 
 
 Within the garden court and win a place 
 
 In some forgotten shaded row, that love 
 
 The sunshine just as well as if their stems 
 
 Were diademed with bloom, and though their leaves 
 
 In gratitude receive the heavenly showers, 
 
 Some watchful gardener's hand will pluck their 
 
 root 
 And cast them to decay — blindly seeing not 
 God's hand in weeds that dare to grow unasked I 
 
54 siJKAr/'.s. 
 
 And so, too, Retrospect, our little faults — 
 
 ()ur sweet enticing sins — will find ;i way 
 
 And rt';i(h our lic.itts, wlicic purer blosson'i;^ j;ro\. 
 
 Uncalled lor and nnsoiiglit, and <;ive to life 
 
 A shaded undergrowth, where ofliiiies live 
 
 The llowerless weeds that Nature, in her true 
 
 r.eiievolen<-e, has cast to generous Life, 
 
 Who claims as well the broadcast seeds tliat gruw 
 
 in untitled soil, as all the bloom of (lowers. 
 
 To cultivate, to |)rune, to strengthen all 
 
 Is Ciod's own task, iiol that of wt-akly man, 
 
 Who seeks in virtues for the laults of lif(,'; 
 
 In some' to find, ])erchance, the sell -grown weeds, 
 
 Intruding with the self-same right as bloom. 
 
 Will thou, () Ketrospect ! with self-sown grace, 
 
 In sweet forgetfulness of all save ilowers, 
 
 I'oitray the ])ast ? Heed not the idle thoughts 
 
 Tliat lind ill all the thistles wayside thorns, 
 
 \)i\\ search loi honeyed stores within the briars ; 
 
 And in thy Innuuigs overshadow all 
 
 W iih misty veils ol ilusk and heaxi'idy dews ; 
 
RKTJ^OSrKCT. 55 
 
 On all the weeds, I I'r.iy tlicc, lay thy hand 
 In tender, gentle love : if in the shade 
 'riu;y will not seek a rival in the sum ; 
 If in the sun tliey will not ask for hlorjui, 
 Contented they with dews ;i.iid pe.'ire :i,ud life ! 
 
 I'or voi(:(.-s (;f thy song take thfju the sighs 
 
 Of s<juthern winds, whose tuneful, rhythinal calm 
 
 I^^xtracts from all the hhKjm of life sweet scents 
 
 And everlasting joy — a iliapsodi/.e 
 
 i'"roni Nature's niclfMly, not undertones 
 
 That murmur in a solemn dirge a life 
 
 Of servile warnings in the sighs of J)eath, 
 
 But sing aloud the roundelay of hearts, 
 
 The rustif;, untaught theme that tunes the s(jul 
 
 Wherever chords, in love, shall harm(jni/,e 
 
 A mortal life with immortality ! 
 
56 SHEA VES. 
 
 ENDURE. 
 
 URMUR not, O soul of mine, 
 Endure . 
 Transgressions cover thee, 
 Let thy petition be, 
 Not mine the will but Thine. 
 
 Endure. 
 
 Bid not rod of vengeance stay. 
 
 Endure . 
 No moan, nor plaint, nor wail, 
 With sighs for sins avail, 
 Thine is the judgment-day. 
 
 Endure 
 
 Soul, with patience, wait thy call, 
 
 Endure \ 
 
 Immortal, yet of earth. 
 
 Eternity claims birth 
 
 Though transitory pall. 
 
 Endure. 
 
ENDURE. 57 
 
 Soul, till night of blessed peace, 
 
 Endure ! 
 And thy appointed rest, 
 When death will thee invest 
 With life, and thy release. 
 
 Endure. 
 
58 SHEAVES. 
 
 TRANQUILLITY. 
 
 HE sun sinks low throiigli clouds of purpled 
 
 gold 
 
 'I'IkiI skirt tlic western sky witli regal fold. 
 The winter darkness deei)ens from afar, 
 And nearer, clearer, glints the evening star ; 
 Come, watch the shadows fall 
 Dim, soft, and slow ! 
 
 The dusk is here, and Peace patrols the night, 
 l^'.scorting calm Repose from day aflighl ; 
 A (juiet hush subdues my soul — with thee 
 I watch the gloam that brings me ecstasy ; 
 Come, rest thee near my heart 
 With love aglow ! 
 
 No light within the room, save wood fire's cheery 
 
 blaze ; 
 'Neath hearth the cricket chirps of vanished days ; 
 Hut morn has dawned forever on my soul ! 
 1 read thy love writ on a jewelled scroll 
 That gleams within my heart, 
 It loves thee so ! 
 
A SUNSET IN MARCH. 59 
 
 A SUNSET IN MARCH. 
 
 Ml^, sun lias served his day ihroughont llic 
 liOLirs, 
 
 Save when the sobbing wind in fitful showers 
 Has driven sullen clouds, that shadows trace 
 In momentary gloom that veiled his face ; 
 Toward the western skies he hastens now, 
 With broadening beams adorning nature's brow, 
 And gleaming with a tenderness in vales ; 
 His fondness lingering, though twiliglit jjales 
 The blushes of his beams, within the shades 
 Of the gray and unadorned wood and glades. 
 
 In hesitation, on the barren hills, 
 
 AVith gracious thought, his duty he fulfils, 
 
 bestowing quickened glowings on their sides 
 
 Where unforgotten verdure still abides ; 
 
 He weaves with passing rays a golden spread, 
 
 And fringing in the forests a golden thread 
 
6o SHEA VES. 
 
 For l)orders of their gray and shaded brown, 
 With parting care, he casts tlie splendor down 
 O'er landscapes fading from his glowing gaze 
 In dreamy dimnings of declining rays, 
 Then onward through the kingdom of the space, 
 To the goal he hastens in his daily race. 
 
 With lengthened beams — where eastern shadows 
 
 lay — 
 From western skies he searches for his Day ; 
 He floods the gray cathedrals of the earth — 
 The mountain domes of nature's holy birth, 
 That rear in space their everlasting spires 
 Against the horizon — with benedictive fires ; 
 Within the sanctuaries of their shade 
 He strives to find the path that young Day made, 
 When with his early rosy beams she found, 
 In listening echoes that her joys resound. 
 The answering voices of her first-born hours. 
 That Morn, from gloom of night with love restores, 
 In Aurora's cloud procession brought 
 Through hues of dawning, by her blushes wrought. 
 
./ SUNSE7' IN MARCH. 6 1 
 
 When summoned, Day advances toward the west 
 Folding her departing hours closer to her breast ; 
 Attending clouds now hasten to her side 
 In multitudes, the highway to divide ; 
 From north and south, in loyalty they wait 
 Within tlie sky, toward the western gate ; 
 The ^Vin(l is calling hosts in hurrying haste, 
 That closer to the horizon are placed 
 Nearer to the west, imperious in line 
 Of columned hues, whose bannerets define 
 The cop])er sheen of walls that rim the space 
 In wondrous poise and gorgeous, magic grace. 
 
 With sudden grandeur tlie Sun descends with Day ! 
 
 Expectant hosts now flit in disarray, 
 
 And in confusion, hurrying to and fro. 
 
 The multitudes from southward, northward go 
 
 While the gates are opening, and floods of beams 
 
 Are streaming through the heavens in glowing 
 
 gleams, 
 That wreathe the cloudy lines with crowning golds, 
 Through jewelled amethysts, in rubied folds. 
 
62 SHEA I 'AS. 
 
 V:\r in ihc azure cast, on seas ot red, 
 
 l'uri)le(l waves are ridini^, by the wind-voice Inl, 
 
 In (U'ep carnalioni'd vioh't in llu- blue, 
 
 'J'hrough every color of llu- raiid)o\v's hue : 
 
 All space abounds in one rellecling r;iy, 
 
 That reaches frcjm the Sun to jjarting Day 
 
 In garlands for the decking of her lleet — 
 
 Mooting in the space where tiie wincbtides nu-et,— 
 
 TIkU decorated, moves beyond, afar, 
 
 To wait the coming of the Iwening Star, 
 
 In escort through the shadows gray that f;ill 
 
 When stariy trains come forth at Evening's call ; 
 
 Then slowly sinking, gathering the clouds 
 
 Around his kingly throne, in golden shrouds 
 
 'I'he Sun folds Day ; aiul in one parting gaze, 
 
 With seeming invocation through his rays 
 
 Renewing the hues of the fading sky 
 
 \Vith glory, while wan Night is passing by, 
 
 Ketiring from the space, to her ( onsigns, 
 
 In peace, the shadows with their starry signs 
 
 Closing fast the gates of the golden west, 
 
 Leaving to hushing Nature, peace and rest, 
 
J SI/NS/-:T /N iMAUCIl. 
 
 ^'l 
 
 While llic silver Moon-f|ii(;(-n looks in her love — 
 'J'iirou^li flimning of the twilight sky above — 
 Ii(,-lo\v her in a fjuicl, jjiirc, still light, 
 iieuij^ii in calm icflection, upon the Night. 
 
64 SHEA VES. 
 
 GOOD-NIGHT. 
 
 I. 
 OOD-NIGHT, my sweetheart, just one kiss' 
 The gloam is faUing o'er our bHss ; 
 'V\\Q day we '11 bind with farewell vow, 
 And with '' God bless our love " endow. 
 Then go thy way, my heart will call 
 Where'er thou art, my love I my all ! 
 
 II. 
 
 Good-night, my sweetheart, round thy dreams 
 
 May love-light shine with moon-like beams ; 
 
 'Vhc. sun betrayed thy blushes coy 
 
 When heart concealed its modest joy. 
 
 Tile answ'ring thought my h()j)e will call 
 Where'er thou art, my love ! my all ! 
 
 III. 
 
 Good-night, my sweetheart, still good-night ! 
 
 With thee, my love, my life I i)light ; 
 
 To thee entrust my future years. 
 
 My joys, my sorrows, hojjes, and fears. 
 Forever now my heart will call 
 Where'er thou art, my own ! my all : 
 
KJiVEALINC. 65 
 
 RKVKAl.INC; 
 
 J.cnV-VVAJJJOi) cottage in tlic valley's shade ; 
 Around the window, clinging jasmine twines 
 The snow-white blossoms of its nc)wering vines, 
 Whose spicy sweetness, by the soft winds swayed 
 Through whispering leaves, that braid and braid, 
 With moon-ljeams, fjuiveringin bright silver lines, 
 Crossing the lattice, her fair face enshrines 
 In winsome beauty, wistful blue-eyed maid. 
 With love's expectancy — while shadows fell — 
 
 She watched the twilight o'er the wood and w(;ld, 
 'I'ill hills had sunk in dusk to fields below 
 In vale, where echoes chimed the vesper bell ; 
 Her heart, unto her soul the secret told, 
 
 When Love passed by, that she his face might 
 know ! 
 
C>Ci sill': A I 'A\v. 
 
 kisCocNi rioN. 
 II 
 
 ^^jrril Iciidcnu'ss <)l N;ihir(r's love .iiid j^r.icc, 
 "«^l 'I'Im- Mill is h.-iciiij', ii()()ii(l;iy willi it;, l)c;iiiis 
 < )'(|- v.illcy fields, wlicic sliiiiimci int', sticiiiis 
 Ix<ll«'. 1 Ihcii Ixudcr hlossoiiis ill <iiiIm.i( c 
 ( >l minorcd Ix-.iiily, while in inleil.Kc 
 
 Tlic liL'in'loiis le.ives iwr su'.iyiii}; iiietric liicmc:; 
 For l)r(';illi ol sonllieiii wind, drowsy willi drc.iiiis 
 ;\lid |)elliiines llie V( )iil pi ll()iisiie:,s ol .sp.Kc. 
 Two souls ;ii(' w.ilkiii}.', lliroiii;li inystcrioiis liji^lil 
 'i'ii.il Ir.iiisloriiis yoiilli, .iiid destiny, ;ind lilc, 
 'i'iirongli i)circ(:l love, eiil;in^icim-iit ol plow 
 That \v<aves with sunbciuns, Ihnnigh a, heart's dark 
 night, 
 'I'lu.' gol(U.'n woofs of rc'stfulncss — not strife, 
 
 And woe, that J.ijvc ])assc:d ])y and did not 
 know ! 
 
/ h'j:(:.\i. n.\ V. 
 
 ^>7 
 
 A MVA'.iW. I)AV. 
 
 UNI{J->AMS ll;js)i(<l on llic iiiillwliccl';, 8j)r;iy 
 Rainhows tiiihrd its wliirliiif^ play ; 
 I)iiiipl((| ((idles, < ;il,(;liiii;.f llic twirl, 
 Tossed .'I w.'ilt/, to till- lo.iniii)^ put I , 
 Limpid son^-\v;i.v(; followed ;iltei, 
 I'r.Ullii)}^ iiiiiriiiiirii echoed Kiii^lilcr, 
 Wavelet'; ri]>pled joyous v(ji<;(-s — 
 Hahbling limes thai heart rejoices ; 
 All th(; wood-trees, juiisic h-ndinp;, 
 Whispered wel<;oiM<: in their hending, 
 When h;ii)d iii li.itid vv<: took our way, 
 To erowri our heart'', true- love-tli.il. day, 
 To elrii lre-(.', ne.ir the stre/mi, whr^se ih^'xrw. 
 San^ Hiir;h a happy life-Ion^ drearri, 
 l^'or you ;ind in<:. 
 
 iligh hung the sun at. tid*.- (A noon ; 
 Th(r wild birds hushe<i their nintin tuno; 
 The rnillwheel stopped, th': gleeliil :,j;ray 
 1 browsed on the streamlet, tired of play ; 
 
68 SHEA VES. 
 
 The rippling song sweet cadence gave 
 
 Where wiUow-trees kissed sleepy wave ; 
 
 The breeze-blown leaves, with trem'lous sighing, 
 
 Whispered that golden morn was dying ; 
 
 Hope wove fibrous threads with grace, 
 
 Webbing hearts in fond embrace ; 
 
 O'er the loom Love's shuttle spun 
 
 Th' eternal noon our lives had won, 
 
 Thro' hush of soul that set its seal 
 
 O'er vows that plighted woe or weal 
 
 For you and me ! 
 
 Shadows fell askant the westward, 
 
 Sinking low o'er wood and greensward ; 
 
 Song-birds home to nests were flying ; 
 
 Soft winds moaned with gentle sighing ; 
 
 The twilight veiled the babbling stream, 
 
 And song-wave crooned eve's peaceful dream ; 
 
 Love knew that halcyon day had flown, 
 
 By mournful voice of sad intone, 
 
 And not by dial count of hours 
 
 That sent the dusk o'er closing flowers, 
 
A REGAL DAY. 69 
 
 Our hearts had burst from folded buds, 
 And blossomed full in roseate floods. 
 
 O fulsome night of golden day, 
 
 So sunken down through sodden gray, 
 
 Why turned not sun again to noon, 
 
 To crown the hours that fled too soon ; 
 
 ^Vhy stayed he not his endless flight, 
 
 To bring time's tide aback to night ; 
 
 Why cast he shade o'er dewy space 
 
 That gave the day such tearful grace, 
 
 When ]:)urpled clouds of horizon 
 
 Wrapped regal glory round his throne 
 
 In westward sky, ere sombre gloom 
 
 With night had come, that paled the bloom 
 
 Of flowers, and halo Love had worn ! 
 
 That royal day, that summer morn, 
 
 When hand in hand we took our way 
 
 Where heart crowned heart with Love's own lay, 
 
 Near elm tree, and the stream whose theme 
 
 Sang such a happy, life-long dream 
 
 For you and me ! 
 
JO SHEA I'ES. 
 
 REVERIES. 
 
 IS bitter cold ! the gmy and sullen night 
 Peers through the window with a frowning 
 stare ; 
 Vhc sodden sky sulks through the dismal light, 
 And shivering gloom fills all the tempest air. 
 
 The elm tree rattles 'gainst the window-blind 
 In muffled weirdness like a phantom hand ; 
 
 Uorne on the bosom of the wintry wind 
 
 Moans rise and fall, like voice from ghostly land. 
 
 The sombre, fitful shadows pall for hours. 
 Like funeral i)lumes that wave o'er burial train. 
 
 And stalk with dismal pomp as darkness lowers. 
 To shroud the day that sunshine sought in vain. 
 
 In dim procession i)ass my years of life, 
 
 And rise through darkness of the night to me ; 
 
 A glowing vision ere rose tears or strite, 
 
 While I'aith hung rainbows o'er my cypress tree. 
 
RKVKRJES. 71 
 
 "r was wanton spring that came with gladsome air 
 And filled my heart with song and growing 
 love, 
 
 A shrine where Hope laid rosary down in ])rayrr. 
 With folded buds that hidden sighs might provf. 
 
 lluL summer burgeoned, love was crowned with 
 flowers. 
 
 And lilies held their chalices on liigh 
 For chrisnial dews, that sealed the birth of iiours, 
 
 Unfolding loses through a sweetened sigh. 
 
 'I'he sigli that chokes tlu; heart when full (;f joy 
 Akin to sorrow, Hoods the soul with tears, 
 
 And love grows languid with the dewy cloy 
 That dims the shadows of the coming years. 
 
 The roses ])erish, and the wintry wind 
 
 Moans where the lilies droo])ed througii tears of 
 woe. 
 And blossoms fall in death, and leave behind 
 
 The stalks that bend when sunmier breezes 
 blow. 
 
72 SHEA VES. 
 
 The sun-tanned stubble marks the fallow field 
 Where grain was ripened for the harvest crown ; 
 
 While I, in darkness, count the meagre yield 
 
 Of spring-time's promise, through midwinter's 
 frown. 
 
SOLITUDE. 73 
 
 SOLITUDE. 
 
 I. 
 
 ENTREATMENT. 
 
 |OLITUDE, oh, teach me where thy silence 
 dwells, 
 
 Safe guarded by thy faithful sentinels, 
 In some lone tabernacle of this life ! 
 I weary with the world and worldly strife, 
 Where seas now swarm and surge tumultuous Avoe, 
 While sorrow drives the tide's responsive flow 
 In fitful alternation — no surcease 
 Of passion's fire in calm of holy peace. 
 Monotones seem whispering " Evermore" 
 Through moaning winds that speed from shore to 
 
 shore 
 With wail and cry of Fate. Unrest and Rest, 
 ^he spousal unity by love unblest, 
 Consorts through Discord's inharmonious vow, 
 Dirge through my life their din of " Then and 
 
 Now." 
 
SHEA VES. 
 
 II. 
 
 SUBJECTION 
 
 ANITIES entice me with seductive wiles 
 Through luscious poisons, that a trust be- 
 guiles 
 To kindling of a flame of fevered joy, 
 Embracing Reason in its dross alloy ; 
 Temptations swarm in busy images, 
 Cajoling Life with tongued winsome ease. 
 Besetting Resolution with despond, 
 And beck'ning Retribution with their wand ; 
 Ambition holds its court where, devotee, 
 I worship gauds, and bend the servile knee 
 To weak fictitious of the worldly heart. 
 The fealty of vanity and art 
 That desecrates in reverence the name 
 Of Conscience as a ministrant to Fame. 
 
SOLITUDE. 75 
 
 III. 
 
 DEVOTEMENT. 
 
 ilOLITUDE, oh, can I come to thee alone, 
 And in thy shade for sinfuhiess atone ! 
 Myself to know by Contemplation's voice — 
 Who records all my faults,— and in my choice 
 Of thy sweet silentness an evidence 
 Will give to thee of all my own offence. 
 In some retreat of holy hushfulness, 
 Oh, give me, Solitude, the truthfulness 
 That shatters all the pomps and vanities 
 Of brazen gauds and idle pageantries 
 To ruins in the worldly dust of Sin, 
 That to my soul a peace can enter in 
 Of Blessed Antepast — the Holy Dove 
 That wings its flight from heaven above ! 
 
SHEAVES. 
 
 M\ kUTIl 
 
 ()'!' llirou^li llu- lirlds ol llu- golden ij,iMin, 
 WhcTi' llu* iwipcrs lustily siii<;, 
 \ii(l llu- ^IciiuTS slioiil llu- iclr.'iiii 
 As the swntli to llu- (•.iilli llicy bring, 
 I )i(l she coiiii' to iiu' 
 My Kiitli to l)c. 
 
 IT. 
 
 Not whili- the siinli",lit Icll on ihc slic.ivcs 
 
 'rii.it sl.nilrd with lr('ij;hl foi" Ihc bin, 
 V.w ch.iir th.il the liiisb.iiidin.in clravcs 
 1 l.id yielded the kei nel within, 
 
 I )i(l she (onu' to nic 
 Mv Uiilh to be. 
 
 III. 
 
 I'liowM w;is the stul)])le, parched Ihc < orn, 
 
 My haryest was winnowed with tears, 
 r.li;j,ht ol decay on wheat nnshorn 
 
A/y KU'j'Ji. jy 
 
 Had willicrcd the siiii-growth of years, 
 When she came to me 
 My Ruth U) l)e. 
 
 IV. 
 Gone were the gleaners, hushed were tlie fields, 
 
 A weird l)arren waste was my fj'fe ; 
 Friends ! as chaff to the winds sliow tin; yield, 
 They left me in hunger and strife, 
 Y(-t s//(' came to me 
 My Ruth to be ! 
 
7S 
 
 SHEA VES. 
 
 ENTREAT NOT. 
 
 NTREAT me not to leave thee : 
 Imploring so doth grieve me ; 
 Oh, let me linger in the sun, 
 Where hope a golden thread has spun 
 
 II 
 
 Entreat me not to leave thee ! 
 Thy coldness doth bereave me ; 
 Tear not asunder wedded years, 
 Now grown to one in flood of tears. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Entreat me not to leave thee ! 
 My heart doth so deceive me ; 
 If vows thou gav'st me are forgot. 
 Yet love was bound with blessed knot. 
 
ENTREAT NOT. 79 
 
 IV 
 
 Entreat me not to leave thee ! 
 Though scorning still receive me • 
 I'liy loyal subject — oh ! my king ! 
 My heart ! my love ! to thee I cling. 
 
80 SHEA VES. 
 
 THE DEAD BIRD. 
 
 I^^IOULD blue sky above find no cloudlet of 
 1^^ gray 
 
 To cover thy flight when thy song greeted day ; 
 Could sun throw no beam o'er brown and white 
 
 feather 
 To hood thy fleet wing now prone on the heather ! 
 
 How wanton the hand that sent the swift dart ! 
 How cruel the wound that was torn through thy 
 
 heart ! 
 Thy little voice trilling was the sigh of sweet tune, 
 Thy wings fanned a song cadence broken too soon. 
 
 How proud was thy soar, when thy sweet matin 
 
 song 
 Met the bright dawn of day, thou had'st welcomed 
 
 so long ! 
 Now low thou art laid with plumes ruffled and torn, 
 Cold, dead in the dust, while I sorrowing mourn ! 
 
THE DEAD BIRD. Si 
 
 I '11 smooth down thy feathers and bind close thy 
 
 wings, 
 I '11 make thee a grave where the rivulet sings ; 
 'Round thy soft ])lumage I '11 wrap the sweet clover. 
 \Vith buds of wild roses thy red wound I '11 cover. 
 
 A bunch of while daisies shall pillow thy head, 
 When under the green ferns I lay thee down dead ; 
 The buttercup blossoms shall catch dewy tears, 
 \Vhen harebells ring re(|uiems that whippoorwill 
 hears. 
 
 With sighs I enfold thee within thy sweet shroud. 
 The perfumes of wild flowers, thou song of the 
 
 cloud I 
 Bereft of one voice tuneful Day passes on, 
 Yet I mourn the sad fate of a sweet songster gone ! 
 
 When sunbeams at morn cast a glow o'er my face, 
 Tshall wonder if other birds sing with the grace, 
 While upward their liearts leap in song to the sky, 
 'J1iat tuned thy sweet voice to glad praises or. 
 high. 
 
82 SHEA VI'.S. 
 
 Farewell, little bird with the wound in tiiy breast, 
 Down low 'fieath the mosses I lay thee to rest ! 
 No more to tlie sun wilt thou cliaiil thy refrain, 
 The ferns will o'ershatlow tiiy heart rent in twain ! 
 
THE EASTER DAISIES. 
 
 (near 'juk ij.crrjKN.) 
 
 |iWl" l*0(jr;n llu; nmllioiK-d windows and ihc 
 1m..^4| pictured panes, 
 
 Where clustering angels hovered in the glory stains, 
 Prismatic colored sunbeams of the dawning hours 
 ]''looded with a glory the Holy Alt.ir flowers ; 
 yVround the Sacred Sign the stately lilies stood, 
 lJl>holding chalices — in snowy sisterhood — 
 That caught the streaming rays of tiie golden 
 
 I'^aster's Morn, 
 While yet uprising to the Ooss of Cilory liorn. 
 
 lielow the purijled sunshine where silent shadows 
 
 In all the peace and stillness of the ]Caster Day, 
 In lowly, sweet intrusion, within the Holy Place, 
 Were meek-eyed daisies gathered in unpretentious 
 grace ; 
 
84 SHEA VES. 
 
 Clustered with the liHes around the Blessed Shrine, 
 Unlifted to the Emblem they did not fully shine, 
 Yet to the Place they brought, in voices of the sod, 
 The sermons from the fields that Blessed footsteps 
 trod ! 
 
or TRACE, 85 
 
 OF PEACE. 
 
 LIFE ! in all thy fate decreed, 
 Where rests in thought, in word, in deed, 
 Thy mystery's devising ; 
 Thy immutable uprising ; 
 Through sorrow's limnings, 
 
 Threning sadness. 
 Thy soulful hymnings 
 Tuned to gladness. 
 Solve thou in thy rhythmal numbers 
 A [problem, that my soul encumbers ; 
 Within profoundness of thy shade, 
 Oh, tell me where thy Peace is laid ! 
 
 With Faith ? Who, in her meek and lowly grace, 
 Seeks not the goal within the worldly race, 
 To win on angry seas that Doubt foments, 
 Through vain seditions that its woe laments ; 
 Who sits within the temple of Belief 
 The chaste and spotless vestal of a grief. 
 
86 SHEA VES. 
 
 To watch the flame of ardor in the fires 
 That godUness of sacred trust inspires, 
 Enfolding -in her pure uplifted life 
 A deathless hope in service of thy strife. 
 
 With Love ? In lustre of the gold and clay, 
 
 Allied by false Desire — salvationless astray — 
 
 Who frets and irritates a quenchless flame 
 
 Within the heart, deluding to a shame 
 
 A trust and confidence betrayed. 
 
 Through artifice, and direful masquerade 
 
 Of Woe, who wears the mask of Love's own face, 
 
 While false, beguiling wiles its vows debase. 
 
 Mocking the symbols of its chaste repose 
 
 In destitution that Desire bestows I 
 
 Or in the love of harmony and truth, 
 Unknown by sin, or sorrow's kindred ruth. 
 That glows within the heart in sUnlent light, 
 Defended from the beggary and blight 
 Of vows inconstant, by a Holy love 
 That guards its duty with the Peace above ; 
 Adorning all the waste and wilderness 
 
OF PEACE, 87 
 
 Of life, in bloom of hope and tenderness 
 And verdure of a pure undying day, 
 That closes but in night of Death's array ! 
 
 With Pride ? Who subjugates the heart's repose 
 Through bitter conflicts that its pomps disclose ! 
 Eclipsing day through one perpetual night, 
 From which the glowworm love has taken flight ; 
 The reaper of the wheat all bare of flowers, 
 Who gathers in the darkness its golden showers, 
 To store them where no stray impassioned seed 
 Would find the fallow of a goodly deed, 
 And grow to loveliness that suns in day 
 The pity of a life in love's decay ; 
 Who folds itself in the sepulchre of years, 
 To gnaw the rust of desolation's tears 
 In melancholy gloom, dismantling the heart 
 Degraded through the selfishness of art ; 
 Whose footsteps clanging on the rocks in scorn 
 Trample in the lily dust the rose twin-born ! 
 
 With Time ? Mutating in its changeful moods 
 The zeal of liope to care that sorrow broods ; 
 
88 SHEA ]'KS. 
 
 Its days, the fugitives from fickle joys, 
 I'liisued by^ passions that Remorse destroys ; 
 'Hu- horde of i)arasites that Lust enchains, 
 1\ ion-bound to wheel that Fate ordains. 
 Revolving round the heart in corroding sin, 
 Partaking of the banquet of its peace within, 
 To sip the golden-beaded wine of love, 
 In insolence, its dainty food to prove, 
 In re-begotten triumphs, where a regent reigns 
 In sovereignty of will that corruption feigns ! 
 
 Or else, within the temple of a trust 
 To gleam amid the jewels of its dust. 
 And flame in rosy hues across its sky 
 'i'he dawn of ho})e, where lurid shadows lie, 
 iMiiitting rays of loveliness through blame. 
 When vanquished in its battle for a fame, 
 'i'he wreck and ruin of a fond desire 
 Obscures in ashes all its quenched fire ! 
 
 Ah Life ! thy deei)'ning mysteries devise 
 Distrust, where woes immutable uprise. 
 Thy Pride decrees a will to subjugate 
 
OF PEACE. 89 
 
 The heart, Ijy conquering hope of soul innate ; 
 
 Desire will vanquish tenderness of love 
 
 Through grief and wretchedness that sorrows jjrove ; 
 
 While Time mutates within thy mortal dust, 
 
 Destroying tabernacles of its hope and trust ; 
 
 W'ith pain and tortures tormented and distressed, 
 
 Thy human being merges into woe oppressed ; 
 
 Thy days, that dawn in golden spheres of light, 
 
 To grayness wane, sojourners of the night ; 
 
 In feasts thy pampered luxuries abide, 
 
 Carousals of an indolence — untried 
 
 Through ban of poverty's lamenting cry, 
 
 That germs the good within humanity. 
 
 Thy vanities soar to limits of thy space. 
 
 And fluttering o'er a shame, grovel in disgrace : 
 
 Thy conquests mark in marble efifigy 
 
 The mile-stones of thy immortality, 
 
 Beyond the desert of thy sandy shore, 
 
 Where thy soul endureth for evermore. 
 
 And yet thy J^'aith, though human, is divine. 
 In rest, the baubles of thy name to her resign. 
 Her trust embraces through the mist of doubt 
 
90 SHEA VES. 
 
 The glory of thy soul, holy, pure, devout ; 
 
 W^ithin thy tossings — fathomless in sin — 
 
 She bids the light of hope to enter in 
 
 And manifest the future by its glow 
 
 Of godly ardors, in benedictions flow. 
 
 Within her peace she folds a sorrow's sigh 
 
 In tenderness, when sad regrets are passing by. 
 
 To tiring vigils of a wan despair 
 
 She gives the resignation of her prayer ; 
 
 When sin's abasing fetters choke the soul 
 
 She opens wide the door of Heavenly goal. 
 
 Divine in sweet forgiveness — to man denied 
 
 By man when human sin is cried 
 
 Derisive, in a voice relentless in its call. 
 
 Pursuing in its vengeance the human pall. 
 
 To dress it in a garb that human nature scorns- 
 
 Thy Faith, e'er pitiful, its woe adorns 
 
 With memories of redemption through a life 
 
 Of grace that arrogance denies to mortal strife. 
 
 Alas ! how frail are tenants of thy days. 
 How vain the contests of thy mortal ways ! 
 Defeated, conquered, silenced by thy dead, 
 
OF PEACE. 91 
 
 O Life ! what triumphs crown thy mortals' head ! 
 
 The victories of Time are but the dust, 
 
 The victories of Love but hope and trust, 
 
 Thy Pride, thy Will, in all thy sovereign power, 
 
 Crumble to the doom of the mortal's hour. 
 
 Ambitious natures still with thee abide 
 
 Li love and vanity and fulsome pride ; 
 
 Till worn with want — the penury of gain — 
 
 The restless heart is filled with nameless pain. 
 
 And Death, more merciful to mortal shade, 
 
 ^Vith lowly Faith thy Peace in rest hath laid. 
 
92 SHIiA VES. 
 
 AFTER TWILIGHT. 
 
 l^ 
 
 HE wild bird has chanted his evening hymn, 
 And sleeps through the night on the leafy 
 limb, 
 Which the soft wind tosses and gently swings, - 
 While he pillows his head 'neath his downy wings. 
 
 II. 
 
 And his little brown mate dreams on the nest 
 That cradles the brood 'neath her feathery breast. 
 While the soft dews fall from Heaven above, 
 On the sheltering wings of her mother love. 
 
 III. 
 
 'T is full of the moon, and its big round face 
 Shines with a splendor that fills the blue space ; 
 The white fleecy clouds sail on through the sky, 
 Fantastic in guise as a fleet on high. 
 
AFTER TWILIGHT. 93 
 
 IV. 
 
 Down in the meadows where bright daisies sleep. 
 
 The grasses bend low a silence to keep ; 
 
 The murmuring stream is lulling a rest, 
 
 While the stars shine down on its peaceful breast. 
 
 V. 
 
 All through the woodland that fringes the field 
 The lune light gleams like a pale silver shield, 
 And the whippoorwill mourns with plaintive cry 
 For his mate in the meadows nestward to fly. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Beneath mountain- ranges the still shadows lay, 
 Shrouding the valley in soft robes of gray, 
 Chast'ning the duskness of dell far below, 
 And glades in the forest where rivulets flow. 
 
 VII. 
 
 All nature is calm ! The stillness of night, 
 Sublime in its muteness, grandeur, and might, 
 Is crowned with the peaceful presence of God, 
 From the mountain's high top to the valley's low sod. 
 
94 SHEA VES. 
 
 VIII. 
 Harmonious lyres tuned to God's praise^ 
 Voices of nature their prayer vigils raise, 
 E'en through a hush, adorations intone, 
 Vibrating through Time to Eternity's throne 
 
THE HEART. 95 
 
 THE HEART. 
 
 HOU foolish heart, so full of care, 
 Why seek a future sorrow ? 
 Receive thy troubles share by share 
 
 And burthen not to-morrow ; 
 For day by day thy bread is doled. 
 While day by day thy years unfold ! 
 
 Thou selfish heart, so full of sighs, 
 Love gains a love by giving ! 
 
 The grateful bud in sun's light lies, 
 Its bloom in beams receiving ; 
 
 While day by day the beauty grows. 
 
 That day by day in sunshine glows ' 
 
 Thou cruel heart, so full of scorn. 
 
 That calls thy life a duty 
 For nursing wounds of sorrow's thorn. 
 
 Why scar thy restless beauty. 
 When day by day in healing calm, 
 Each day by day, peace brings a balm ? 
 
96 SHEA VES. 
 
 Thou happy lieart, so full of love, 
 
 With joy a joy dividing 
 With generous care, while blessings prove 
 
 Forever thy abiding ; 
 'Fhy days are days that bring the sun, 
 Thy days are days of blossoms won ! 
 
 Thou faithful heart — love incomplete- 
 Meet thy fate unfaltering ! 
 
 Life's nectar sip — the bitter sweet — 
 With trust and hope unaltering ; 
 
 Though day by day brings darker night, 
 
 Yet day by day dawns newer light ! 
 
UNTA UGIIT. 97 
 
 UNTAUGHT. 
 
 1 
 
 HE sun of youth, whose golden beams 
 Dawn with the days from unsought dreams, 
 
 Where memory claims no fading flowers 
 Tliat perish with the summer hours. 
 Casts shadows from a life's first bloom — 
 Not cowering sighs of scentless gloom — 
 O'er paths that open to the heart 
 A highway, where no subtle art 
 Can rear the milestones of a race ; 
 For Love walks on in winsome grace 
 With timid guests, that Hope receives 
 'Neath arches wreathed with budding leaves. 
 The unfolded blossoms' waiting hues, 
 That Love, victorious, reviews. 
 When, in the nuptials of a vow, 
 He binds their blushes 'round a brow. 
 
9.8 SHEA VES. 
 
 MAY. 
 
 I 
 
 HE apple-blossoms and the clear blue sky ; 
 The honest robins' quaint inquiring cry ; 
 The inason swallows building 'neath the eaves ; 
 The maples flowering in their red-winged leaves ; 
 The bluebirds flying from east to west 
 While fashioning the patterns of a nest ; 
 The homely dandelions in the grass 
 Now looking in our faces as we pass ; 
 The modest little murmurs in tlie streams ; 
 The sleepy valleys waking from their dreams ; 
 The dainty greening feathers on the trees ; 
 The gentle whispers in the evening breeze ; 
 The fringing willows bending to the ground ; 
 The solemn frog's songs croaked with mournful 
 
 sound ; 
 While twilight lingers in the golden west, 
 And the yellow primrose opens on thy breast, 
 Sweet May day, in thy welcome face I see 
 The summer blossoms, that will come to me. 
 
THY HEAkT AND MINE. 99 
 
 THY HEAPs.T AXD MIXE. 
 
 ^jOULD'ST thou call thy heart to thy pensive 
 ^1 face, 
 Where thy quickened soul, in a holy glow, 
 Haloes thy blushes with its golden grace. 
 
 Like a sunbeam guarding with its overflow 
 A nestling rosebud. through love's interlace, 
 What would it answer me ? 
 
 Should I ask thy heart shall clasping of our hands 
 
 Thus interweave our lives in sweet repose, 
 As the flushing hues and the leafy strands 
 
 Will robe o'er the heart of the full-bloomed 
 " rose 
 A perfumed life, blessed through God's own com- 
 mands, 
 
 What would its answer be ? 
 
100 SHEA VES. 
 
 Could'st thou from thy heart transfigure unto mine 
 A rubied life, all dressed in Love's attire, 
 
 With a voiceless vow that mingled mine and thine 
 With love, transfused through a flameless fire ; 
 
 Should my beseeching call from thee the sign, 
 What would thy answer be ? 
 
AfV HEART AND THINE. lOI 
 
 II. 
 MY HEART AND THINE. 
 
 OULD I call my heart, through blushes, to 
 my face, 
 
 'T would wander, lost in waves of rosy flow ; 
 My soul would whisper, through a mystic grace, 
 
 " A heaven waits tliee in my perfect glow "; 
 Then trust thee not the hue that blushes trace 
 For answer unto thee ! 
 
 Should 'st thou ask my heart — with my hand clasped 
 in thine — 
 To tell thee of two lives in sweet repose, 
 'T would sigh for blessings of the love Divine 
 
 That robes our lives in glory, not the rose 
 That fades and crumbles on an earthly shrine ; 
 Thus would it answer thee ! 
 
102 SHEAVES. 
 
 Could I, from my heart, thus deify a theme 
 For Life, and render unto thee a flame, 
 
 Enkindling fusion into one sui)reme, 
 
 Thy heart and mine for covenant and name, 
 
 The signet, Love would give in gleam 
 Of soul, to answer thee ! 
 
CONSOLATION. IO3 
 
 CONSOLATION. 
 
 RIEVE not thy spirit with thy sighing ! 
 Though Death divorces thee from love, 
 And through thy vigils with the dying 
 Thou 'st heard the footfalls from above, 
 The angels pacing, pacing 
 
 Without thy chamber door, 
 Through earthly dust were tracing 
 The flight to Heavenly shore 1 
 
 Weep not in tears of sad confessing ! 
 
 While sighs are beating at thy heart, 
 In griefs, thy empty arms are pressing 
 So close to wounds now torn apart, 
 The angels pacing, pacing 
 Without thy chamber door, 
 '' Through earthly dust are tracing 
 
 The flight to Heavenly shore ! 
 
104 SHEA VES. 
 
 Shrine not thy heart in one entombing, 
 
 And sepulchre thy life in death, 
 Though folded are her hands in glooming, 
 And stilled forever is her breath. 
 For angels pacing, pacing 
 
 Without some chamber door, 
 Througli dust are ever tracing 
 The flight to Heavenly shore. 
 
SIGNIFICA TION, I05 
 
 SIGNIFICATION. 
 
 'RECALL the Past ! it is not thine ! 
 O'er buried years let ivy twine, 
 
 With friendly shade, obscuring mould, 
 That clings to ruins crumbling down 
 From dome that once reared golden crown 
 
 To Heaven's high arch when vows were told ! 
 
 Shed burning tears ! through mournful stare 
 They furrow scars where heart-wounds glare, 
 
 And mark the pace of broken faith ; 
 'Neath ragged stone of ashen gray. 
 Thy trusting love with sorrow lay 
 
 In tomb of Woe, its tearful wraith ! 
 
 Grieve not thy heart ! the past forget ; 
 Fold round thy future no regret ; 
 
 Beyond the gloom the Sun's still shrined, 
 And through the golden rifts, the bow 
 Of promise still with hope shall glow, 
 'Neath low'ring clouds with silver lined ! 
 
I06 SHEA VES. 
 
 REVIEWING. 
 
 STllKART to heart in one confession 
 
 m 
 
 And in fear, 
 Let lis view the sad procession 
 
 Of one year : 
 Passing in its mute beseeching 
 
 With its days, 
 Let us with an inward teaching 
 
 Sound its praise. 
 
 Through a sorrow and dejection 
 
 On its way, 
 Pale with tears and recollection 
 
 Of the day 
 Gliding through the twilight's breaking 
 
 Like a wraith, 
 From her dreams and sighs awaking. 
 
 There is Faith. 
 
REVIEWING. 107 
 
 Here, all clad in dewy flowers 
 
 Newly born, 
 In her arms the golden hours 
 
 Of the morn 
 (You remember all their faces), 
 
 Is the spring : 
 Sunbeams of forgotten graces 
 
 Here they bring. 
 
 In the shadow of a sadness 
 
 And a sigh, 
 Through the perfumes of a gladness 
 
 Passing by. 
 In the autumn's chill enduring, 
 
 All the air 
 Of the summer's sweet alluring. 
 
 Love is there. 
 
 Crowned with asphodels and pansies 
 
 Robed in gold. 
 
 With the purple of Love's fancies 
 
 In its fold. 
 
lOS SHEAVES. 
 
 All the dews of Love's own promise 
 
 In its breath 
 
 Wheri it took our sunimer from us — 
 
 That is Death. 
 
 In the night of winter's moaning 
 
 And its rue, 
 In its peace for life atoning 
 
 'Neath the yew, 
 In its rested hands upholding 
 
 Not one sign, 
 With the darkness round it folding 
 
 In a shrine, 
 
 Let us lay the year in flowers 
 
 In a tomb, 
 With the memory of its hours 
 
 In its gloom, 
 Summer's sunning, winter's sighing. 
 
 All in one. 
 Love's beginning in its dying 
 
 All undone. 
 
THE SHADOW LAND. lOQ 
 
 THE SHADOW LAND. 
 
 — I shall go to him but he sliall not return to me." 
 
 II .Samuel, xii, 23. 
 
 HERE is a valley of the shadows, in the dim 
 unknown, 
 Where in answering summons one by one go all 
 
 alone. 
 No htiman eye hath seen its pathway, in mystery 
 
 veiled, 
 Yet human liearts have mourned the numbers that 
 its darkness paled. 
 
 Loved ones, dear ones, go before us, and then the 
 
 way seems near ; 
 Glancing in their quiet faces its shadows disappear ; 
 Calm in stillness, no responses, what mystery divides 
 The placid sleeping from our grieving where such 
 
 peace abides ? 
 
I 10 SHEA VES. 
 
 In its slumbers hands arc folded in peace across a 
 
 breast 
 That guided all our wandering footsteps in a life's 
 
 unrest ; 
 While we in vain arc calling backward from its dark 
 
 confines 
 Voices that arc hushed forever in calm that gives 
 
 no signs. 
 
 Then in our pathway grow the flowers filled with 
 
 summer bloom, 
 And in our lives some voice will cheer us in our 
 
 lonely gloom ; 
 From day to day the sun is shining, and with a 
 
 gladsome grace 
 A love grows nearer still and dearer in some gentle 
 
 face. 
 
 Though mist is ever o'er our faces, the valley always 
 
 near, 
 Yet hand in hand we ])luck the blossoms while we 
 
 linger here ; 
 
THE SHADOW LAND. Ill 
 
 Till those who walk in love beside us within its 
 
 shadows pale, 
 We cannot follow — they divide us in their dimning 
 
 veil ! 
 
 'T is then that, loitering in the sunshine, grows a 
 
 weary care ; 
 We search the shadows, ever longing, for one voice 
 
 is there 
 That could answer to our sighing, and guide us with 
 
 one hand 
 Through the mysteries of the valley of the shadow 
 
 land. 
 
 Wo fear no longer, weary pilgrims hastening to its 
 shore, 
 
 Regretting not we leave the sunlight, for loved ones 
 gone before 
 
 Witt greet us in the valley shadows of the dim un- 
 known. 
 
 Though we wander forth in darkness one by one 
 alone. 
 
1 1 2 SHEA VES. 
 
 VIGILS. 
 
 HE watch of Nativity — Life ! 
 31MI The fulfihnent of law and strife 
 hito the world through a travailing, 
 Predestination's unravelling 
 
 Of mystery, through Immutable God ; 
 Lhe divinity of soul in a clod 
 Come to the light. 
 Through night, through night. 
 
 Throes of Maternity 
 Thy Pre-eternity ! 
 
 II. 
 
 The watch of Maturity — Man ! 
 
 A completeness though under the ban 
 Of counting Life's sands for thee numbered. 
 Till weary with mountains encumbered ! 
 
 Serving probation, to Time a slave, 
 
 Sin thy inheritance down to the grave, 
 
VIGILS, 1 1 3 
 
 Bond of Earth light, 
 
 Soul's human night, 
 
 To Earth consecrated, 
 Through Earthly created ! 
 
 III. 
 The watch of Identity — Age ! 
 The audit of Time to assuage ; 
 Stealthily clinging to servitude, 
 Counting the years as an interlude 
 
 Indexed by Time in lines on thy brow, ' 
 Though set with the Harvest that Death will 
 
 mow, 
 Through the dark night. 
 Till Light of Light, 
 
 Divine Restitution, 
 Gives Absolution ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 ' The watch of Eternity — Death ! 
 Transition of Soul by a breath 
 Into its God from Earth's travailing ; 
 Predestination's unravelling 
 
1 14 SHEA VES. 
 
 Of Mystery's Epitaph — mortal clay, 
 
 The foul's earthly Cenotaph — mortal day, 
 
 Through Night to Light, 
 
 Angelic flight, 
 
 By Faith consecrated, 
 By Death re-created ! 
 
MEM OR V. I I 
 
 MEMORY. 
 
 HE day in peace within the darkness lies ; 
 In clouds that sunshine left within the skies, 
 The rosy hues that gathered in the west 
 Have trailed their scattered draperies o'er her 
 
 breast ; 
 Through shadows, in the moon-rest of the night, 
 Her hours passed down with sun that lent them 
 
 light, 
 To dimness of the perfumed twilight gloom, 
 That lurks v/ithin the hearts of flowering bloom 
 When Evening comes, through leafy summers 
 
 themes, 
 Its vespers tuned to calm and peaceful dreams. 
 
 Ah, Memory ! with twilight con\es thy hour. 
 
 The silence of the soul unfolds a flower 
 
 Wh'ere, blooming with the night ingrained with 
 
 lines 
 Through crayons of its shade, thy bright sun 
 
 shines; 
 
Il6 SHEAVES. 
 
 The smiles that veil a sombre sorrowing heart 
 Will rest jn moon-lent shadows where thou art ; 
 The blushes soften o'er a paling face 
 Their flushings, through dreamings of thy tender 
 
 grace ; 
 In perfumes, rising in the briglit array 
 And fragrance of a well-remembered day, 
 Through joy thy festals come, the hidden train 
 Of life ; yet Duty, in heroic pain 
 Serving Conscience, o'er the intrusive flowers 
 Casts the shadows of unforgotten hours ; 
 In grief that answers in the mute reply, 
 And tenderness that sanctifies a sigh, 
 Thy blossoms flower in the speechless love 
 And silence where a rank-grown sorrow throve ; 
 Thy gleams of sunshine search within thy thought 
 For sighs through dust that mortal sorrows 
 
 wrought ; 
 The calmed reflective grieving for the dead 
 Lingers in the shadows where Hope is led 
 Through darkness of thy consecrated years, 
 Receiving dew, through chrism of thy tears ! 
 
MEM OR V. 117 
 
 In SLinbeamed thought, O Memory ! roll thy scroll. 
 Hide from sorrow, in peacefiilness of soul, 
 The grievous ]:)ang of all thy mortal throes 
 That rest within the sepulchre of woes : 
 With earnest sober hope dictate to life 
 Tha twilight peace that follows all its strife, 
 When folded in the drapery of Night 
 It rests within the threshold of its Light ! 
 
I I'd 
 
 SHEA VES. 
 
 DESPAIR NOT. 
 
 HY despair when I am here ! 
 Perfect love outcasteth fear ; 
 All my heart is thine — with thee abides ; 
 All thy grief is mine — if woe betides. 
 
 11. 
 
 Why lament with care opprest ! 
 
 Cradled on my faithful breast ; 
 Round thy face a glow — the hush of peace- 
 Tears no longer flow and sorrows cease. 
 
 III. 
 
 Why protest and hope im])]ore ! 
 
 Folded in my arms, no more 
 Sigli with sad intone ; so near my lieart 
 How could I bemoan love rent apart ! 
 
DESPAIR NOT. IIQ 
 
 IV. 
 
 Why pursue a phantom joy ! 
 
 Alluring hope — a vain decoy, 
 Love 's a holy shrine, and waits thy vow 
 Seal our trust divine — forever ! now ! 
 
I20 SHEA VES. 
 
 MY ROSE. 
 
 N fond remembrance of the summer day, 
 When on thy green tree blushing 
 I found thy sweetness, while the dew-drops lay 
 Within thy hectic flushing ; 
 
 I will love thee, and caress thee, 
 Though in sadness I possess thee. 
 Pale withered Rose — 
 
 And Thorn ! 
 
 To dust and crumbling all thy beauties fade, 
 
 While to the winds by sighing 
 I toss thy perfume, through the impress made 
 On leaves by Love when dying ; . 
 
 Yet I love thee, and caress thee. 
 Though in sadness I possess thee. 
 Pale withered Rose — 
 
 And Thorn ! 
 
MV ROSE. 121 
 
 Though bloom and fragrance and a wondrous 
 grace 
 Are from thy green tree springing, 
 And rearing beauty, through another face 
 Than thine, where Love was clinging ; 
 Yet I love thee, and caress thee, 
 Though in sadness I possess thee, 
 Pale withered Rose — 
 
 And Thorn ! 
 
122 SHEAVES, 
 
 A TRUSTING HEART. 
 
 TRUSTING heart, with hope full freighted, 
 Once launched a sail on Love's high sea, 
 That in its trackless waves was fated 
 A shivering, shattered wreck to be ! 
 
 'Neath amber skies with sunshine glowing 
 
 In glamours of the summer day, 
 Rocked by the winds that balms were blowing, 
 
 The mirrored craft on billows lay. 
 
 Its envoy, Trust, through sweet beguiling, 
 The jewelled heart of Faith had won ; 
 
 While Promise, Doubt was reconciling 
 Through golden glows that Joy had spun. 
 
 Till through the tides of Tears decreeing. 
 In moonlight of the heart's wan night, 
 
 Through tempests of Distrust's foreseeing, 
 'T was driven to Despair's dark night. 
 
A TRUSTING HEART, 1 23 
 
 In chilling sighs, when day was breaking 
 And the mystic shores of Fate drew near, 
 
 Pale Faith from dreams of Trust was waking 
 To grief and all its rueful fear ! 
 
 With moorings lost in fitful sorrows, 
 The sails of Heart's craft furled in woe 
 
 Of sad to-days and sad to-morrows. 
 Drifted through the tides' reflow. 
 
 From weary toss of trustful splendor 
 
 The wreck was stranded in to shore, 
 When Faith had yielded full surrender 
 
 On Love's high sea, for evermore 1 
 
1 24 SHEA VES. 
 
 RECOMPENSE. 
 
 SEND for thee by white-winged messenger, 
 
 I call her Faith ; 
 All swathed in peace, close to her bosom lies 
 
 My life's one wraith. 
 In chrismal dew's anointed fall 
 
 Prepared for death, 
 It sleeps in calm repose, sin-shrived through prayer 
 
 Of dying breath. 
 
 Sustaining flight, Faith wraps around with air 
 
 Her plumed wings , 
 Unwearied in her quest, a missioned hope 
 
 To thee she brings. 
 So swift through clouds and skies, she hovers not 
 
 With sacred trust 
 Near sun, lest dazzling rays might trail her way 
 
 With earthly dust. 
 
RE COM PEN SE. 1 2 5 
 
 She offers thee thy guerdon with a vow- 
 That binds the years, 
 
 Within the silence of eternal death 
 
 Baptized in tears ; 
 
 From life thus purified I thee implore 
 
 Lift not the veil ; 
 
 Attending angels bear on high the soul, 
 
 My holy grail ! 
 
 If closer to my heart the sunbeams glow- 
 When thou art near. 
 
 And rise in waves that overwhelm my soul, 
 
 I shall not fear ; 
 
 But should'st thou glance within its sealed shrine 
 
 And call the sigh, 
 
 That wafts a vision 'fore my eyes, through tears, 
 
 Then pass me by ! 
 
1 26 SHEA VES. 
 
 TEARS. 
 
 HE tears that meet the heart in sorrow, 
 
 And whehii a grief in their refreshing dew, 
 Will flow to rifts of some To-morrow, 
 
 Whose sun will gild the Cypress and the Yew 
 With precious glory of a hope through God, 
 Who stars a Heaven o'er the earthy sod, 
 Though breaking heart of feeble nature mourns 
 That Death with crown immortal Love adorns! 
 
 The tears that flow in wrathful contest 
 
 To seas of woe, that rage with lashing waves. 
 Will strand life's shore with wrecks of conquest, 
 The drifted spoils of Love that memory craves, 
 The spoils we drink from Life's enchanted cup 
 When Pleasure pours the wine and bids us sup 
 In thirst, till reeling with a drunken breath, 
 The heart is torn with fatal shaft of Death ! 
 
TEARS 127 
 
 The tears that flow from Blessed Fountain 
 
 When smitten rock of sin is torn apart, 
 Will deluge Evil 'neath the mountain 
 
 Where Olives grow that shade the erring heart, 
 The Zion of a Life Victorious, 
 The soul on Heights by God made glorious, 
 Arrayed in Light, whence Truth has entered in 
 Beatified by Faith and Peace within ! 
 
128 SHEAVES. 
 
 MY INGLE. 
 
 IHE back log on the fire-dogs burns ; 
 Its red flame flickers to and fro ; 
 
 On window-pane Frost deftly turns 
 Fantastic landscapes, laced with snow, 
 While chilling blasts of winter blow ! 
 
 Draw curtains low, shut out the night. 
 Near fender wheel the old arm-chair ; 
 
 Come sit thee down by hearth-stone light, 
 While freezing wind, in wild despair, 
 Howls maddened through the frosty air I 
 
 We '11 count to-night our wedlock years 
 By ruddy glow that cheers the room, 
 
 The wintry fears so fraught with tears, 
 
 And summery suns of young Love's bloom 
 That towering Pine and Palm illume. 
 
 Contentment guards thy steadfast heart. 
 And on thy brow, where hand of Peace 
 
 Has left its sign, the shadows start 
 
 From wrinkles where Time left the crease- 
 The index tracing youth's release. 
 
MY INGLE. 129 
 
 Wan grow thy hands whence missions sped 
 Through goodly deeds now ripe in beam 
 
 That moonHghts o'er thy silvered head 
 A halo crown, where blessings gleam 
 Of (rod — His bounteous love supreme. 
 
 Thougli chaplet wove of youth's red flowers 
 Has paled through age to waxen hue, 
 
 And years freighted with wearying hours 
 Are echoes of a tearful rue, 
 Dear Ingle, thou wert ever true ! 
 
 Hand joined to hand in wedlock life 
 With patient trust and faith inwove, 
 
 E'er guiding me through all the strife, 
 In tender, true, abiding love, 
 Sweet compensations didst thou prove 
 
 Thus looking at our wedded years 
 By ruddy glow that cheers the room 
 
 Tl*e wintry fears, though fraught with tears, 
 Through summery suns of all life's bloom, 
 Beyond the Palms the Pines illume ! 
 
i'SO SHEAVES. 
 
 WHEN. 
 
 I. 
 
 HEN I am dead, and in the dust you lay down 
 low 
 
 The tenement which held my soul's immortal glow, 
 
 And clods fall earth to earth, weep, Love, for me no 
 
 more. 
 
 Though sorrow whelm your heart that I have gone 
 
 before 
 
 II. 
 
 But when alone you leave me there, cast down two 
 
 Palms 
 
 In fashion of a Cross, the Sign that ever calms, 
 
 And covers all our sins ; resting beneath its shade, 
 
 Submissive to God's will, my soul, my hopes, are laid. 
 
 III. 
 O Love ! upon my grave erect no sculptured stone, 
 Lest hand of passer-by shall point to name unknown; 
 But ask the flowers to grow their incense borne to 
 
 God, 
 And tempt the birds to sing His praises o'er the sod. 
 
WHEN. 1 3 1 
 
 IV. 
 
 When you go there, Love, nor sorrow bring nor 
 
 tears, 
 Though dust to dust be crumbling o'er my mortal 
 
 years ; 
 But strive to find beyond life's mystery the Crown 
 That lustres Faith and Peace from Heavenly Cross 
 
 cast down. 
 
 V. 
 When years have passed, O Love, if yet upon the 
 
 way 
 You wait the summons, struggling still in mortal 
 
 clay ; 
 If memory calls my name, answer, "I knew it well." 
 'T is all — to be forgot is fate, and Life's sad knell ! 
 
n2 SlIEAVEii. 
 
 TO A PANSY. 
 
 HREE little faces beneath thy purple hood 
 Are bending to the rising of the sun ; 
 Love-in-idleness is crowned with golden snood, 
 While pale Remembrance a sombre veil hath 
 spun 
 From the shade of dawning twilight o'er the wood ; 
 Self-contented Heart's-ease is looking at the 
 twain, 
 And sighs : "Ah, me ! between two sorrows choose : 
 
 To wear a fillet round the heart with pain, 
 Or veil it with possession of a love — to lose ! " 
 
AN ALLEGORY. 1 33 
 
 AN ALT.EGORY. 
 
 HILE wandering o'er life's desert land:;, 
 Amid the waste of burning sands, 
 Beneath a Palm I found a spring ; 
 Weary, I laid me down to rest, 
 Drank from its fount and was refreshed, 
 Fanned by the zephyrs' wing. 
 
 Beside its pure and limpid stream 
 I slept, while in a visioned dream 
 
 A voice in tender plea. 
 Beneath the Palm-tree's cooling shade. 
 Where gentle zephyrs round me played, 
 
 Thus whispered unto me : 
 
 "When struggling for the might and right, 
 Thou 'rt faint and weary with the fight, 
 
 This pure, cool spring will give 
 New strength for life ; go, battle on. 
 Till victory for the ^nith is won, 
 
 And thou hast learned to live. 
 
1 34 SHEA VES. 
 
 " Sift thou its sands to find thy gold, 
 Thou 'rt lost and wandering from the fold 
 
 For husks of Pleasure's goal. 
 Trust in thy heart throughout the day, 
 At night I guard thy weary way ; 
 
 Rest, sleep, thou tired soul." 
 
 I wakened in a blessed calm ; 
 Another stood beside the Palm. 
 
 Who claimed the spring his own. 
 Ah ! the voice ! my dream ! fled and gone 
 While I was forced to wander on 
 
 Amidst the warring crowd — alone I 
 
H 
 
 THE LOST SUNBEAMS. I 35 
 
 THE LOST SUNBEAMS. 
 
 N shadows lost, two sunbeams wandered side 
 by side, 
 
 One v\'ith a lowly meekness, one with haughty pride. 
 A violet of the woodshade raised her modest face 
 In chaste enquiring wonder and a stainless grace, 
 In gentle salutation, as they were passing by, 
 While tears of dew were falling from her purple eye ; 
 Mute in love's own dreaming, unfolding all her 
 
 leaves, 
 Her humble sweet petition the lowly beam per- 
 ceives ; 
 In longing hesitation, weary for a rest. 
 In trusting, pure submission, hovering o'er her 
 
 breast ; 
 Its former life regretting, the prison of Day's heart, 
 By stormy mandate driven to wandering far apart, 
 Within the darkness seeking dews of blossom's tears, 
 Xhat live within the weeping of defenceless fears ; 
 In dumbness of appealing one sign of love it made, 
 And, the violet embracing, was lost within her shade ! 
 
136 SHEAVES. 
 
 Late with the Autumn lingering, one Rose in its 
 
 bloom 
 (While tlie sunbeam proudly wandered alone in 
 
 gloom), 
 With a gaze unfaltering, with her blushes crowned, 
 Looked Avithin the echoing where the shadows 
 
 frowned ; 
 Lonely in her solitude, seeking other flowers, 
 Unfaded, though forgotten, in the quiet hours, 
 In gentle recognition of sorrow and distress, 
 In fondness, offering expiation in caress, 
 Her speechless perfume wafted to the beam of 
 
 pride, 
 Still lost within the shadows where all griefs abide. 
 In noble desolation banished from a life, 
 Where peaceful Day was lying dead in clouds of 
 
 strife ; 
 Through chill and grief abiding in dignity of blame, 
 To Rose, in lonely blooming, the beam in pity came ; 
 Though lost to Day forever, voiceless in its death. 
 In Rose bloom resurrected it won a perfumed 
 
 breath ! 
 
TANGLES. 137 
 
 TANGLES. 
 
 'PINNING tlie threads ! the wheel goes 
 iBiSiJ&@i round ! 
 Love liolds the distaff, yet tangles are found ; 
 Stop in the whirl — heart mad with joy — 
 The fibre is twisted, and Love will destroy. 
 
 Weaving the web I watch well the loom I 
 Love holds the shuttle, and dark shadows gloom ; 
 Trust not thy heart — while the sun gleams 
 Unravel the shadows, and fill in with beams. 
 
 Sowing the seeds I unwinnowed grain ! 
 Love seeks a harvest within a broad plain ; 
 Furrow with care — level the lines. 
 For gleaners will gather while the sun shines. 
 
 Binding tlie sheaves ! reaping in song I 
 Love holds the sickle — beware of the thong I 
 Chaff flies to wind — heavy grain bends, 
 Yet heart-broken sorrows Love never mends. 
 
38 
 
 SHEA VES. 
 
 LIFE. 
 
 
 IFE'S whirl and din ! 
 The sands run in ; 
 
 Work, busy brain ; 
 
 Toil, care, and pain 
 
 Encompass thee ; 
 
 Mortality 
 
 Thy destiny, 
 
 Humanity 
 
 Thine equity, 
 Divinity 
 Thy God ! 
 
DEA TH. I 39 
 
 Tf^^^ 
 
 DEATH. 
 
 II. 
 EATH solves the doubt 
 he sands run out ; 
 Rest, weary brain, 
 From care and pain, 
 Anxiety, 
 And agony, 
 In harmony. 
 Tranquillity, 
 Eternity, 
 Of God : 
 
I40 SHEAVE. 
 
 THOU 
 
 EARER, dearer, art thou grown, 
 Lost forever, thou, my own ! 
 Nearer through the hush of sighs, 
 Dearer while the love-fire dies, 
 Woe betides us. 
 Fate divides us ! 
 
 Drifting, drifting far apart, 
 Thou and I, my own dear Heart ! 
 Drifting in one life-long dream 
 Lost in echoes of love's theme. 
 
 Thou my gladness, 
 
 Thou my sadness ! 
 
 Nameless, blameless was our love. 
 Yet confessions sorrows prove ! 
 Silent, speechless, mute and lone, 
 Let us lose the love we won 
 
 In the driftings. 
 
 And the riftings I 
 
BURYING THE BLOSSOM. I4I 
 
 BURYING THE BLOSSOM. 
 
 N the dust, in its perfume, we bury the rose ; 
 Though the bud of a promise its weary leaves 
 close ; 
 Unfolded too soon, in the bright summer days, 
 It crumbled to death in the sun's burning rays ! 
 
 Recalling the thought of a summer-day dream, 
 As it passes in morn through a golden sunbeam, 
 The mourning wind sighs in a dirgeful refrain, 
 Over the corse and- its funeral train. 
 
 Only a moment, for one fleecy cloud 
 Has palled o'er its face a dim sombre shroud. 
 While close to the lips of its once perfum.ed breath, 
 A thorn, with the rose, lies paled in its death ! 
 
 In^ its crypt and its night we lower its bier. 
 While reading the sermon, "tear unto tear," 
 In a sad invocation over one life 
 That rests in repose from its sorrow and strife. 
 
142 SHEA VES. 
 
 In memory sighing, we leave it alone, 
 It needs not the mark of a gleaming white stone ; 
 Though a dead blossom, it lent a sweet grace 
 To one thought that Time can never efface ! 
 
TO A BUTTERFLY. 1 43 
 
 TO A BUTTERFLY. 
 
 HOU flying flower, go fan thy wings in sun- 
 beams, 
 
 Receive the pension that the glow bestows 
 On beauty, in the mellowness of noon-dreams, 
 While rocking in the cradle of a rose. 
 
 Should thy golden wings from tire of passion pale, 
 Through sighing for the rose of perfumed breath. 
 
 To the lily fly, her snowy chalice scale, 
 
 Baptize them in her dew — then fold them down in 
 death. 
 
1-44 SHEAVES. 
 
 ^ WAITING IN THE SHADOWS. 
 
 '1ST to the summons of thy heart, 
 Dost hear the love watch calling ? 
 
 " Come through the lane at twilight hour, 
 When shadows low are falling." 
 
 Hark to the plaintive voice of Love, 
 
 Born of a mute appealing, 
 Whose sighs are wandering lone and lost 
 
 Through heart of thy revealing. 
 
 Hush ! through the stillness of the night, 
 'Neath flowery coverts hiding, 
 
 Unpinioned Love is wafting signs 
 To tryst — and thy abiding. 
 
 Ask for his wings for Heart's convoy. 
 To haste the answer calling ; 
 
 Thy lover waits — 't is twilight hour, 
 And shadows low are falling ! 
 
WOO/.VG. 145 
 
 WOOINXx. 
 
 !XOT a blue ribbon in thy gleaming gold hair, 
 I Entwining its ripples that shadow thy face, 
 
 Where the sunbeams are kissing the roses so fair, 
 That blush through thy modesty's grace. 
 
 Lift up the lashes of thy violet eyes 
 
 While the love light within them deepens their 
 hue, 
 Ere they pale in the Shade and thy heart fire 
 dies, 
 Drowned in the deptns of tneir heavenly dew. 
 
 Ah ! what more could Love need to welcome the 
 day, 
 Than the kiss from thy lips now enticing me so ? 
 And why should Love sigh when the day passed 
 away, 
 If sealing the night they bid Sorrow to go ? 
 
14^ SHEA VES. 
 
 And why does my heart sigh for sun gone too soon, 
 
 When the smiles from thy face can kindle a flame 
 
 That would glow in my life with the fervor of 
 
 noon, 
 
 And scorch it to ashes, if Love thou shouldst 
 
 blame ? 
 
 Ah ! how my heart wooes, in fear and opprest, 
 For life that would float through the tide of thy 
 love ; 
 
 And why should it drift from its haven of rest, 
 For have I not thee, Love, and heaven above ? 
 

 NOT FORGOTTEN. 1 4; 
 
 NOT FORGOTTEN. 
 
 HOUGH despair and grief pursue thee, 
 MJ^ And thy soul by sin is tried, 
 May the grace of faith subdue thee. 
 
 May its peace with thee abide. 
 Though thy footsteps wandering stray, 
 
 Thou are not forgotten ; 
 Pilgrim, watch and pray ! 
 
 Though the wounds from thorns delay thee 
 
 On tliy weary way oppressed, 
 Fear not — trust — He wuil repay thee 
 
 In the haven of His Rest. 
 Though thy footsteps wandering stray, 
 
 Thou art not forgotten ; 
 Pilgrim, watch and pray ! 
 
 Day will dawn though dark the night be 
 
 Meek and lowly kiss the rod, 
 Clasp the staff though sorrows smite thee, 
 
 Plead for mercy from thy God. 
 Though thy footsteps wandering stray, 
 
 Thou art not forgotten ; 
 Pilgrim, watch and pray ! 
 
148 SHEAVES. 
 
 MEDITATIONS ON DEATH. 
 
 HOSE friendly hand will close our eyes in 
 i death, 
 
 When, through its fitful pausing, the mortal breath 
 Shall pass from gasp and struggle of the clay 
 And earth, through sunset of the life's long day ? 
 
 \Vhose friendly heart will grieve when chilling brow- 
 Is misting with the dews from night of woe, 
 While the soul is gliding through the mortal gloom 
 And purple shadows of its earthly tomb ? 
 
 Whose friendly love will fold our hands in peace 
 When all life ends and mortal sorrows cease, 
 When soul has snapped the vital cord in twain. 
 Of pinion, binding wings that flight sustain ? 
 
 Will tears, through mourning, fall from sorrow's eyes 
 On clods below, where mortal body lies^ 
 When dust to dust the ashes slowly fall 
 That cover mortal earth with mortal pall? 
 
MEDI TA 7 ION S ON DEAl 11. 1 49 
 
 Or will it be in some strange foreign land, 
 Unknown, alone, where some kind stranger hand 
 Will lay us in repose, when face to face 
 We meet the mystery of the Heavenly grace 
 
 Remote, afar from our beloved home, 
 When to our failing vision wings shall come 
 That flutter o'er the soul and fan new birth, 
 From glow of life within its feeble earth? 
 
 Ahis ! the mortal knoweth not the hour 
 When quickened soul, divesting mortal power, 
 Shall flit beyond, in twinkling of an eye, 
 To realms whose bounds its God doth sanctify ! 
 
 And yet, in madness of life's fever flush 
 And riot of our hearts, who seeks, by hush 
 And calmness of the soul, to quell the din 
 Of striving for a forfeit, Death will win ? 
 
 When in the tomb we lay some loved one down, 
 We pause, through wounds and thorns of sorrow's 
 
 crown, 
 In tenderness, the new-made woe to shrine 
 In funeral urn, for over-growing vine. 
 
I 50 SHEA VES. 
 
 Then, from our grief, to busy life again 
 
 We open wide the door, that weary Pain 
 
 May tread the outward path, while the sun shines in 
 
 That bids the strife of Memory to begin ; 
 
 Forgetful of the path we too must tread, 
 Down through the valley, to acres of the dead, 
 Where, 'neath the sod below, our loved ones sleep 
 In dreams that everlasting silence keep. 
 
 Where moaning winds will whistle through the grass. 
 As, on storm missions, o'er our heads they pass 
 In tempests, beating through the driven clouds, 
 While v/e are lying close within our shrouds. 
 
 The summer breeze will rustle o'er the sod 
 In whispers from the flowers, that bend and nod 
 To murmurings of the shimmering stream 
 Of life eternal. Nature's gentle theme. 
 
 While those we loved so well will pass near by, 
 And in a low and plaintive voice and cry 
 Of sad remembrance, will speak as if we hear, 
 While on our grave they drop a friendly tear. 
 
M EDIT A TIONS ON DBA TIT. I 5 I 
 
 All through the home, so near and dear to heart, 
 The sun will shine, and rift the clouds apart 
 That closed around one vacant room in night, 
 When Death was holding watch for morning's light. 
 
 And then — oh, mortal destiny ! through years, 
 
 How far aback from memory and tears 
 
 We drift, in furrows of a sea and wave 
 
 That has no earthly shore, save one lone grave ! 
 
 Where yews, in hospitality of shade. 
 Will lend a sorrow to our journey made, 
 In pilgrimage, toward the silent tomb. 
 In watchfulness, above its lonely gloom ! 
 
 Ambition of the heart — of Life the guest — 
 How futile your pretentious, vain unrest, 
 When in the tomb, arrayed in winding-sheet, 
 Embracing in the dust, your kin you meet ! 
 
 Vainglory of the earth, whose passing bell 
 The nothingness of empty pomp will tell, 
 Through grandeur mouldering in sterility 
 And barrenness of blind idolatry. 
 
SHEA VES. 
 
 Oh, sad review when Memory calls the roll 
 Within the sepulchre of death, if the Soul 
 Shall answer not, through calm and husli of prayer^ 
 In whispers to the heart, that God is there ! 
 
UNITY. 153 
 
 UNITY 
 
 IFE has a noon when the soul with love is 
 crowned, 
 In answer given to its human cry, 
 That the heart, in a prayer, will sanctify 
 In its echoing — where its name is found 
 In the voice of Love and its tuneful sound, — 
 When clouds, that gather in its morning sky, 
 Are waiting the- sun mark to glorify 
 Its halo, where the dim gray shadows frowned. 
 
 The sacrament that binds this holy seal. 
 In sweet confession to its kin is told 
 
 By the heart, in faith and true devotion. 
 In communion where love is manifold, 
 ^^Vhen tenderness and truth and hope reveal 
 The parentage of Nature's pure emotion ! 
 
I 54 SHEA VES, 
 
 PEACE. 
 
 ULLED by faith, in its calm where blessings 
 glow, 
 
 Through tempestuous tossings side by side, 
 In supreme content drifting with the tide, 
 Two lives have stemmed the current and the flow 
 Of love : Where moorings of its peace bestow 
 A dreamy languishment, two hearts abide 
 In oneness that mingling souls will guide 
 To hushfulness that only true hearts know ; 
 Where Hope, in diadems, its jewels clusters 
 Within the quiet shadows of its night, 
 That its glowing day in love pursues. 
 Enhancing the brightness of its lustres, 
 In the radiance of the pure delight 
 
 And the joy that peacefulness subdues. 
 
COM PEN SA TIONS. I 5 5 
 
 COMPENSATIONS. 
 
 ISTAKING life— that Time will dignify— 
 We call our sorrows in reviews, through 
 fears 
 From Memory's irritating dust of years ; 
 Resisting not, our woes we glorify ; 
 Choosing not with grief our lives to beautify, 
 We fill the thornless lily with our tears. 
 And search for wounds that thorny rose-bloom 
 rears. 
 Accepting not one hope to deify ! 
 
 Triumphal arches rise all o'er the earth. 
 Bend obedient, seek the open gate ; 
 
 Poor the name that hath no inheritance, 
 Though thy worldly one was a crownless birth. 
 In everlasting glories for thee wait 
 
 Compensations, in God's holy vigilance. 
 
I >6 SHEA VES. 
 
 CONFIDENX^E. 
 
 p HE vine, that in its summer climbing clings, 
 !^ Passive, obedient, and all alone, 
 
 To one rude stone, with mosses overgrown, 
 Compliant in the stormy threatenings, 
 East, west, north, soutli, all through its journeying? 
 Wreathing its progress o'er a mantled throne, 
 While fear of fatal tempests is unknown, 
 Through the peacefulness of the trust it brings ; 
 In its destiny firm, unaltering. 
 
 Fulfils its life with fearless liberty, 
 
 E'er casting forth the verdure of new birth ; 
 Intrepid, silent, and unfaltering, 
 
 Loyal to its mission — that was to be — 
 
 Through leaves forever dropping dews for 
 earth. 
 
DREAMS. Id/ 
 
 DREAMS. 
 
 N fraternity of shadows we guide 
 
 Our thoughts to a dim and strange review- 
 ing ; 
 Reposing Reason aids the weird pursuing 
 Through mystery of sleep, where memories stride 
 With august gait, and sorrows halting glide 
 
 With dream-chained captives, a hope renewing 
 In images of the heart's subduing ; 
 Then disappear in the atmospheric tide, 
 Where the dead confront the living, breathing, 
 And long-forgotten voices in one chorus 
 Absolving dim remembrance of the years. 
 In peans triumphal cars are wreathing 
 With victories of life, that pass before us 
 
 While wakeful Day is wandering through our 
 tears ! 
 
s8 SHEAVES. 
 
 HOPE. 
 
 ALLOWED by a love in destitution, 
 
 When Sorrow, mourning in a rayless grief 
 A wreck that stranded on a rocky reef, 
 Writhes, despairing, in a sad delusion. 
 Seeking in dejection restitution, 
 
 And in the stifled sighing for relief. 
 Forgetting the beginning of belief 
 In wanderings of the dim confusion ; 
 One sign, in a pale fond lustre gleaming, 
 
 Extends a promise through the heart's eclipse. 
 When, blinded, groping in the darkness strange, 
 Defenceless, and mute in the grievous change, 
 Exalted, uplifted to her quivering lips, 
 A cross, illumined with a prayer, is beaming. 
 
S UBMISSION. I 5 9 
 
 SUBMISSION. 
 
 ITH pain, disquietude, and fear oppressed. 
 Enduring grief and trials of despair, 
 
 When life is wandering in an endless care, 
 Seeking the courage of a perfect rest 
 In loneliness, with hope and love unblest ; 
 
 Conflicts, struggles, tears, and sorrows everywhere, 
 
 Imploring Fate its burthens to forbear. 
 Fainting, exhausted, and with woe depressed, 
 Renew the heart with chast'nings of a grace ; 
 
 And thou, with lasting calm, look higher ; 
 Forget the grovellings of thy weary pains ; 
 From Nature take the upward-looking face ; 
 
 Life seems to Heavenly love still nigher 
 When pitiful afflictions its soul enchains. 
 
l6o SHEA VES. 
 
 SUBSTITUTION. 
 
 HANK Heaven that we can say ' we will for- 
 get " ; 
 
 With eager hand, we tear from book of fate 
 The sybil leaf (where Hope may write " too late " 
 Ere Patience claims the page for amulet), 
 Where Love, with tears, will crystallize regret 
 In mystic words that Peace may re-create, 
 And crown anew the fallen heart's estate 
 By one Appointment — God compassionate. 
 As sunshine seeking shadows, day by day 
 
 Will compensations come : For theme of songs 
 Search not for harmonies on broken lyre, 
 Where sweeps the wind, in mournful minor lay, 
 Till melancholy undertone prolongs 
 
 A wail and requiem o'er Love's funeral pyre ! 
 
"■'ijb