Laus Mortis 3267 To waken doubt in one Holding so fast by Thine infinity; The steadfast rock of immortality. With wide-embracing love Thy Spirit animates eternal years, Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears. Though earth and man were gone, There is not room for Death, Nor atom that his might could render void: And what Thou art may never be destroyed. LAUS MORTIS NAY, why should I fear Death, Who gives us life, and in exchange takes breath? He is like cordial Spring That lifts above the soil each buried thing;— Like Autumn, kind and brief— The frost that chills the branches frees the leaf;— Like Winter's stormy hours That spread their fleece of snow to save the flowers. The lordliest of all things, Life lends us only feet, Death gives us wings! Fearing no covert thrust, Let me walk onward, armed with valiant trust, Dreading no unseen knife, Across Death's threshold step from life to life! O all ye frightened folk, Whether ye wear a crown or bear a yoke, Laid in one equal bed, When once your coverlet of grass is spread, What daybreak need you fear? The Love will rule you there which guides you here! Where Life, the Sower, stands, Thou waitest, Reaper lone, Until the multitudinous grain hath grown Scythe-bearer, when thy blade Harvests my flesh, let me be unafraid! God's husbandman thou art! In His unwithering sheaves, O bind my heart! Frederic Lawrence Knowles [1869-1905] "WHEN I HAVE FEARS" WHEN I have fears that I may cease to be Hold like rich garners the full-ripened grain; Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance; Of the wide world I stand alone, and think The Dying Christian to His Soul 3269 LAST SONNET BRIGHT Star! would I were steadfast as thou art- And watching, with eternal lids apart, Of snow upon the mountains and the moors— Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL Animula, vagula, blandula, Nec, ut soles, dabis joca. ADRIANI MORIENTIS, AD ANIMAM SUAM VITAL spark of heavenly flame, Hark! they whisper; angels say, Sister Spirit, come away! The world recedes; it disappears! With sounds seraphic ring! Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! O Death! where is thy sting? Alexander Pope [1688-1744] "BEYOND THE SMILING AND THE WEEPING" BEYOND the smiling and the weeping I shall be soon; Beyond the waking and the sleeping, Love, rest, and home! Sweet hope! Lord, tarry not, but come. Beyond the blooming and the fading Beyond the shining and the shading, Beyond the rising and the setting Beyond the calming and the fretting, Beyond the gathering and the strowing Beyond the ebbing and the flowing, Beyond the parting and the meeting Beyond the farewell and the greeting, Beyond this pulse's fever beating, Life Beyond the frost chain and the fever I shall be soon; Beyond the rock waste and the river, I shall be soon. Love, rest, and home! Sweet hope! Lord, tarry not, but come. 3271 Horatius Bonar [1808-1889] "I STROVE WITH NONE" I STROVE With none; for none was worth my strife. Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art; I warmed both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart. Walter Savage Landor [1775-1864] DEATH DEATH stands above me, whispering low Of his strange language all I know Walter Savage Landor [1775-1864] LIFE LIFE! I know not what thou art, I own to me's a secret yet. But this I know, when thou art fled, As all that then remains of me. |