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Read Ebook: Last Verses by Coolidge Susan
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Ebook has 507 lines and 30302 words, and 11 pages
HELEN KELLER
BEHIND her triple prison-bars shut in She sits, the whitest soul on earth to-day. No shadowing stain, no whispered hint of sin, Into that sanctuary finds the way. There enters only clear and proven truth Apportioned for her use by loving hands And winnowed from all knowledge of all lands To satisfy her ardent thirst of youth.
Like a strange alabaster mask her face, Rayless and sightless, set in patience dumb, Until like quick electric currents come The signals of life into her lonely place; Then, like a lamp just lit, an inward gleam Flashes within the mask's opacity, The features glow and dimple suddenly, And fun and tenderness and sparkle seem To irradiate the lines once dull and blind, While the white slender fingers reach and cling With quick imploring gestures, questioning The mysteries and the meanings:--to her mind
The world is not the sordid world we know; It is a happy and benignant spot Where kindness reigns, and jealousy is not, And men move softly, dropping as they go The golden fruit of knowledge for all to share. And Love is King, and Heaven is very near, And God to whom each separate soul is dear Makes fatherly answer to each whispered prayer. Ah, little stainless soul, shut in so close, May never hint of doubt creep in to be A shadow on the calm security Which wraps thee, as its fragrance wraps a rose.
"A CLOUD OF WITNESSES"
ON Calais sands the breakers roar In fierce and foaming track; The screaming sea-gulls dip and soar, White seen against the black; And shuddering wind and furling sail Are making ready for the gale.
Ho, keeper of the Calais Light! See that your lamps burn free; For, if they should go out to-night, There will be wrecks at sea. Fill them and trim them with due care, For there is tempest in the air.
"Go out? My lamps go out, you say? What words are on your lips? There, in the offing far away, Are sailing countless ships, Beyond my ken, beyond my sight, But all are watching Calais Light.
"If but a single lamp should fail, A single flame burn dim, How could they ride the gathering gale, Or justly steer and trim? To right, to left, would equal be, There are no road-marks in the sea.
"I should not hear their drowning cry, Or see the ship go down, And weeks and months might pass us by, Ere came to Calais town The word--'A ship was lost one night, And all for want of Calais Light.'
"Here in my tower, my lamps in row, I sit the long hours through; There is no soul to mark or know If I my duty do; Yet oftentimes I seem to see A world of eyes all bent on me!
"Go out! My lamps go out! alas! It were a woeful day If ever it should come to pass That I must live to say, A ship went down in storm and night, Because there failed it Calais Light."
Ah, Christian, in your watch-tower set, Fill all your lamps and trim; For though there seem no watchers, yet Far in the darkness dim, Where souls are tossing out of view, A hundred eyes are fixed on you!
COR CORDIUM
ALL diamonded with glittering stars The vast blue arch of air; Pent in behind these mortal bars We strain our eyes to where, Oh noblest heart, thou walkest apart Amid thy heavenly kin. Though blinded with the veils of sense, We may not look within.
Oh eyes so tender with command! Oh eloquent lips and true, Whose speech fell like a quickening fire, Fell like a healing dew! Oh zeal so strong to right the wrong, Oh rich, abounding heart! Oh stintless, tireless, kindest hand,-- God bless thee where thou art!
Not thine the common fate to live Through life's long weary days, And give all that thou had'st to give Uncheered by love and praise. Men did not wait to call thee great Till death had sealed thy brow. They crowned thy living head with bays; What does it matter now?
Thy grave mound is a shrin?d place, Where pilgrim hearts may go, With loving thoughts and thankful prayers, Soft passing to and fro. Seldom with word the air is stirred, Seldom with sob or sigh; All silently and ceaselessly The march of hearts goes by.
Now half our lives seems lived on earth, And half in heaven with thee. Our heart-beats measure out the road To where we fain would be,-- Beyond this strife of mortal life, This lonely ache and pain, Where we who miss and mourn thee so May find thee once again.
MARTHA
HOT on the pavement burns the summer sun, In the deep shadow of the ilex tree The Master rests, while gathering one by one The neighbors enter, crowding silently To hear His words, which drop like honey-dew; I may not hear, there is too much to do.
How can I pause? I seem the only one To take a thought about this multitude Who, the day past and all the preaching done, Will need to be refreshed with wine and food; We cannot send the people home unfed-- What words were those? "I am the living bread."
There is my sister sitting the day long Close to His side, serene and free from care, Helping me not; and surely it is wrong To leave to me the task that she should share. Master, rebuke her, just and true Thou art-- What do I hear? "She hath the better part."
If all chose thus then all would go unfed-- Souls hunger, yes! but bodies have their need. Some one must grind and mix the daily bread, Some one wake early that the rest may feed, Some one bear burdens, face the summer sun-- But must I always, always be the one?
"Cumbered with serving," thus the Master spake; But 'twas to serve Him that I worked so hard . I dare not take the rest which is reward Lest He should suffer while I stay my hand. How hard it is, how hard to understand!
What does a voice say? "He whose power divine Could feed the thousands on the mountain side Needeth no fretting, puny aid like thine. One thing is needful, trust him to provide; The Heavenly Chance comes once nor tarries long"-- Master, forgive me, teach me, I was wrong!
CAEN
IN the quaint Norman city, far apart, A width of humming distance set between, They rest who once lived closely heart to heart, William the conquering Duke and his fair Queen.
Too near of kin to wed, the Church averred, And barred the way which joy was fain to tread; But hearts spoke louder than the priestly word, And youth and love o'erleaped the barrier dread.
No will of wax had England's future King; With iron hand he brushed the curse aside, As 'twere a slight and disregarded thing, And asking leave of no man, claimed his bride.
And they were happy, spite of ban and blame, Rich in renown, estate, in valiant deed; And the sweet Duchess at her broidery frame Wrought her lord's victories for all men to read.
But as the years of wedlock ebbed and flowed, And still the Church averted her stern face, The royal pair grew weary of the load Of unrepented sin and long disgrace,
And bought a peace from late relenting Rome. Two stately abbeys built they, and endowed, With carven pinnacle and tower and dome, And soaring spire and bell-chimes pealing loud.
Within the crypt of one they buried her, True wife and queen, when her time came to die; And when strong death conquered the Conqueror, He slept beneath the other's altar high.
Was it of love's devising that to-day, With all the wide-grown city space to bar, Across the roofs and towers from far away St. Etienne looks upon La Trinita?
Was it some subtle prescience of the heart, Which laid on time and change resistless spell, Forbidding both to hide or hold apart The resting-place of those who loved so well?
For still defying distance, day and night The spires like beckoning fingers seem to rise, The bells to call, as perished voices might, "Love is not dead, Beloved; love never dies!"
TEMPERAMENTS
JACOB BOEHME, Sage and Mystic, wert thou right or wert thou wrong, In believing and upholding that all human souls belong To some elemental structure, be they weak or be they strong?
'Tis a difficult conclusion; but, as in the jewel's blue, Red and rose and green and amber flash and leap and sparkle through, Through your speculative fancy seems to scintillate the true.
For the variance of the creature whom we call our fellow-man, Framed alike in needs and passions, on the self-same human plan, Grows more wide, more past believing, as we study it and scan.
Ah, the temperaments, the fateful, how they front us and surprise, Looking with bewildering distance out of wistful, alien eyes, Never drawing any nearer, or to hate or sympathize.
Eager, dominant, all unresting are the spirits born of Fire, Burning with a fitful fever, ever reaching high and higher, Shrivelling weaker wills before them in the heat of their desire.
Cool, elusive, fluctuating, hard to fix and strangely fair Are the difficult, grievous, grieving souls which born of Water are-- Ours to-day, not ours to-morrow; never ours to hold and wear.
Vainly love and passion battle 'gainst their unresisting chill, Like the oar-stroke in the water which the drops make haste to fill, The impression melts and wavers, the cool surface fronts us still.
But the souls of Air! ah, sweetest, rarest of the human kind, They the poets are, the singers, making music for the mind, Lifting up the weight of living like a fresh and rushing wind.
And the souls of Earth, dear, steadfast, firm of root and sure of stay, Not disdaining commonplaces, not afraid of every day, Taking from the air and water and the sunshine what they may.
Theirs the dower of happy giving, theirs the heritage of Fate Which, when faith has grown to fulness, and the little is made great, Brings to love its true rewarding, harvested or soon or late.
Jacob Boehme, by-gone mystic, gifted with a strange insight, As I read your yellowed pages, which in former times were white, And review my men and women, half I deem that you were right.
THE HOLY NAME
'TIS said when pious Moslem walk abroad, If on the path they spy a floating bit Of paper, reverently they turn aside And shun the scrap, nor set a foot on it, Lest haply thereupon the awful name Of mighty Allah should by chance be writ.
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