A FEW MORE VERSES.

A FEW MORE VERSES.

By SUSAN COOLIDGE.

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME.
———
VERSES.

By SUSAN COOLIDGE.

Price, $1.00.

ROBERTS BROTHERS,
PUBLISHERS.

A

Few More Verses.

By SUSAN COOLIDGE,
AUTHOR OF “VERSES.”










BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1907

Copyright, 1889,
By Roberts Brothers.

Printers
S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A.

GIVING to all, thou gavest as well to me.

A myriad thirsty shores await the tide:

They drink and drink, and will not be denied;

But not a drop less full the brimming Sea.

One tiny shell among the kelp and weed,

One sand-grain where the beaches stretch away,—

How shall the tide regard them? Yet each day

It comes, and fills and satisfies their need.

What can the singing sands give to the Sea?

What the dumb shell, though inly it rejoice?

Only the echo of its own strong voice;—

And this is all that here I bring to thee.

A BENEDICTION.

GOD give thee, love, thy heart’s desire!

What better can I pray?

For though love falter not, nor tire,

And stand on guard all day,

How little can it know or do,

How little can it say!

How hard it strives, and how in vain,

By hope and fear misled,

To make the pathway soft and plain

For the dear feet to tread,

To shield from sun-beat and from rain

The one beloved head!

Its wisdom is made foolishness;

Its best intent goes wrong;

It curses where it fain would bless,

Is weak instead of strong,—

Marring with sad, discordant sighs

The joyance of its song.

I do not dare to bless or ban,—

I am too blind to see,—

But this one little prayer I can

Put up to God for thee,

Because I know what fair, pure things

Thy inmost wishes be;

That what thy heart desires the most

Is what he loves to grant,—

The love that counteth not its cost

If any crave or want;

The presence of the Holy Ghost,

The soul’s inhabitant;

The wider vision of the mind;

The spirit bright with sun;

The temper like a fragrant wind,

Chilling and grieving none;

The quickened heart to know God’s will

And on his errands run;

The ministry of little things,—

Not counted mean or small

By that dear alchemy which brings

Some grain of gold from all;

The faith to wait as well as work,

Whatever may befall.

So, sure of thee, and unafraid,

I make my daily prayer,

Nor fear that my blind zeal be made

Thy injury or snare:

God give thee, love, thy heart’s desire,

And bless thee everywhere!

CONTENTS TO PART SECOND.

  Page

To Arcite at the Wars

13

New every Morning

15

Lohengrin

17

A Single Stitch

19

Reply

20

Talitha Cumi

23

The Better Way

25

Forever

27

Miracle

29

Charlotte Brontë

32

End and Means

34

Comforted

36

Words

39

Influence

41

An Easter Song

43

So Long Ago

45

A Birthday

47

Derelict

49

H. H

51

Freedom

54

The Vision and the Summons

56

Forecast

59

Early Taken

61

Some Lover’s Dear Thought

64

Ashes

66

One Lesser Joy

68

Close at Hand

71

Only a Dream

73

At the Altar

77

Eternity

79

Restfulness

81

In and On

83

A Day-time Moon

85

A Midnight Sun

87

Her Voice

90

A Florentine Juliet

92

Here and There

106

Forward

108

In her Garden

110

On Easter Day

113

“Der Abend ist der Beste”

115

Optimism

117

“He shall drink of the Brook by the Way”

120

Three Pictures

122

The Two Shores

125

“Arise, shine, for thy Light has come”

127

A Withered Violet

129

Darkened

131

The Keys of Granada

133

Bereaved

135

“How can they bear it up in Heaven?”

138

Wave after Wave

141

The Word with Power

143

To Felicia Singing

146

Eurydice

148

Three Worlds

150

Opportunity

153

Christ before Pilate

155

Non Omnis Moriar

158

At Dawn of Day

161

What might have been

163

Some Time

166

The Stars are in the Sky all Day

168

Now

171

Just Beyond

172

Contact

175

An Easter Song

178

Concord

181

Hereafter

184

Our Daily Bread

186

Sleeping and Waking

188

Thorns

190

A New-England Lady

192

Under the Snow

195

Sonnet for a Birthday

197

“Many Waters cannot quench Love”

198

Unexhausted

201

Welcome and Farewell

203

Life

205

Shut in

207

Good-by

209

What the Angel said

211

Commonplace

216

Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh

217

A Thought

219

At Flood

221

The Angels

223

Not Yet

225

To-day and To-morrow

227

“That was the True Light, that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World”

228

The Star

230

Helen

232

Lux in Tenebris

235

Lent

237

Palm Sunday

240

Soul and Body

242

Sound at Core

245

The Old Village

247

A Greeting

252

Changeless

254

Easter

255

The World is Vast

257

TO ARCITE AT THE WARS.
1759.

A THOUSAND leagues of wind-blown space,

A thousand leagues of sea,

Half of the great earth’s hiding face

Divides mine eyes from thee;

The world is strong, the waves are wide,

But my good-will is stronger still,

My love, than wind or tide.

These sentinels which Fate has set

To bar and hold me here

I make my errand-men, to get

A message to thine ear.

The winds shall waft, the waters bear,

And spite of seas I, when I please,

Can reach thee everywhere.

Prayers are like birds to find the way;

Thoughts have a swifter flight;

And mine stream forth to thee all day,

Nor stop to rest by night.

Like silent angels at thy side

They stand unseen, they bend and lean,

They bless and warn and guide.

There is no near, there is no far,

There is no loss or change,

To love which, like a fixèd star,

Abideth in one range,

And shines, and shines, with quenchless eyes,

And sends long rays in many ways

To lighten distant skies.

Where sight is not, faith brighter burns;

So faithfully I wait,

Secure that loyal loving earns

Its guerdon soon or late,—

Secure, though lacking word or sign,

That thy true thought keeps as it ought

Tryst with each thought of mine.