Volume Iii Part 8 (2/2)
One by one the flowers close, Lily and dewy rose Shutting their tender petals from the moon: The gra.s.shoppers are still; but not so soon Are still the noisy crows.
The dormouse squats and eats Choice little dainty bits Beneath the spreading roots of a broad lime; Nibbling his fill he stops from time to time And listens where he sits.
From far the lowings come Of cattle driven home: From farther still the wind brings fitfully The vast continual murmur of the sea, Now loud, now almost dumb.
The gnats whirl in the air, The evening gnats; and there The owl opes broad his eyes and wings to sail For prey; the bat wakes; and the sh.e.l.l-less snail Comes forth, clammy and bare.
Hark! that's the nightingale.
Telling the selfsame tale Her song told when this ancient earth was young: So echoes answered when her song was sung In the first wooded vale.
We call it love and pain, The pa.s.sion of her strain; And yet we little understand or know: Why should it not be rather joy that so Throbs in each throbbing vein?
In separate herds the deer Lie; here the bucks, and here The does, and by its mother sleeps the fawn: Through all the hours of night until the dawn They sleep, forgetting fear.
The hare sleeps where it lies, With wary half-closed eyes: The c.o.c.k has ceased to crow, the hen to cluck: Only the fox is out, some heedless duck Or chicken to surprise.
Remote, each single star Comes out, till there they are All s.h.i.+ning brightly: how the dews fall damp!
While close at hand the glowworm lights her lamp Or twinkles from afar.
But evening now is done As much as if the sun Day-giving had arisen in the east: For night has come; and the great calm has ceased, The quiet sands have run.
CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
ABIDE WITH ME.
Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide; The darkness deepens: Lord, with me abide!
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me!
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day; Earth's joys grow dim; its glories pa.s.s away: Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou, who changest not, abide with me!
Not a brief glance I beg, a pa.s.sing word, But as Thou dwell'st with Thy disciples, Lord, Familiar, condescending, patient, free, Come, not to sojourn, but abide with me!
Come not in terrors, as the King of kings; But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings: Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea:-- Come, Friend of sinners, and thus bide with me!
Thou on my head in early youth didst smile, And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile, Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee; On to the close, O Lord, abide with me!
I need Thy presence every pa.s.sing hour: What but Thy grace can foil the Tempter's power?
Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and suns.h.i.+ne, O abide with me!
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