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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."
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