Dear, it is haunted. All the rest Is yours; but I have shut that door No more. It is not well to stay With ghosts; their very look would scare Check, if you love me, all regret That this one thought remains apart :- LIGHT AND SHADE. HOU hast done well to kneel and say, "Since He who gave can take away, And bid me suffer, I obey." And also well to tell thy heart But bitter hours come to all: Then I would have thee strive to see That good and evil come to thee, And as material life is planned, That even the loneliest one must stand Dependent on his brother's hand; So links more subtle and more fine Nor with thy share of work be vexed; What seems so dark to thy dim sight The flash that struck thy tree,—no more To shelter thee,-lets Heaven's blue floor Shine where it never shone before. Thy life that has been dropped aside The cry wrung from thy spirit's pain Fail-yet rejoice; because no less It may be that in some great need Thy life's poor fragments are decreed To help build up a lofty deed. Thy heart should throb in vast content, That even the discord in thy soul It may be, that when all is light, To hear life's perfect music rise, Then strive more gladly to fulfil Thy little part. This darkness still And trust, as if already plain, I dare not limit time or place One only knows. Yet if the fret Then thou mayst take thy loneliest fears, And through thy anguish there outspread, May ask that God's great love would shed Blessings on one beloved head. And thus thy soul shall learn to draw Where all is good. And life is good, A CHANGELING. LITTLE changeling spirit Crept to my arms one day : So all day long I soothed her, I dug a grave to hold her, I covered her with violets, I used to go and watch there, It was my tears, I fancy, That kept the violets blue. I took her up and once more |