200 REJOICING IN GOD. And, if the eye must fail of light, Make clearer still the spirit's sight, Be near me in mine hours of need As up the hills of morn! J. G. WHITTIER. REJOICING IN GOD. THE bird not always mounteth on the wing, The music heard not lingers on his tongue; Oh, Christian, be it ever thus with thee, When, sitting here, thou with the earth dost blend; LITTLE STREAMS. 201 Still, as we mark thee, let us always see Thou hast a wing just poising to ascend,And that the song which hath no outward voice, Still, in the inward soul, fails never to rejoice. T. C. UPHAM. LITTLE STREAMS. LITTLE streams are light and shadow ; Through the forest dim and wide, By the cottage, by the hall, By the ruin'd abbey still, Turning here and there a mill, Little streams, I love you ever. Summer music is there flowing— Happy life is in them all, Creatures innocent and small; Little birds come down to drink, Fearless of their leafy brink; 202 LITTLE STREAMS. Noble trees beside them grow, Little streams have flowers a many Typha strong, and green bur-reed: There the flowering rush you meet, And the plumy meadow-sweet; And, in places deep and stilly, Little streams, their voices cheery, Flowing on from day to day, Without stint and without stay; Kingfisher, and dragon-fly; Those bright things that have their dwelling, Where the little streams are welling. A HOME. Down in valleys green and lowly, 203 MARY HOWITT. A HOME. WHAT is a home? A guarded space Wherein a few, unfairly blest, Shall sit together face to face, And bask and purr and be at rest? Where cushioned walls rise up between The common pain, and pad and screen Where Art may blossom strong and free, 204 And A HOME. every laden moment be A precious and peculiar thing? And past and future, softly veiled By either hope or memory, While the luxuriant Present weaves Can it be this, the longed-for thing Aspire to, dream of, christen "Home?" No. Art may bloom, and peace and bliss; But if there be no more than this, Dim image from far glory caught, As beacon for all men to see. |