Part 20 (1/2)

O for thy voice to soothe and bless!

What hope of answer, or redress?

Behind the veil, behind the veil.

CROSSING THE BAR

Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crost the bar.

GEORGE MEREDITH

LUCIFER IN STARLIGHT[12]

On a starred night Prince Lucifer uprose.

Tired of his dark dominion, swung the fiend Above the rolling ball in cloud part screened, Where sinners hugged their spectre of repose.

Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those.

And now upon his western wing he leaned, And now his huge bulk o'er Afric's sands careened, And now the black planet shadowed Arctic snows.

Soaring through wider zones that p.r.i.c.ked his scars With memory of the old revolt from Awe, He reached a middle height, and at the stars, Which are the brain of heaven, he looked, and sank.

Around the ancient track marched, rank on rank, The army of unalterable law.

WILLIAM E. HENLEY

INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me, Black as a pit from Pole to Pole, I thank whatever G.o.ds may be For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circ.u.mstance I have not winced nor cried aloud; Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is b.l.o.o.d.y but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the Shade; And yet the menace of the years Finds and still finds me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll: I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

THOMAS HARDY

NEW YEAR'S EVE[13]