Graded Memory Selections Part 12

The waves beside them danced; but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

--_Wordsworth._

A CHILD'S THOUGHT OF G.o.d.

They say that G.o.d lives very high: But if you look above the pines You cannot see G.o.d. And why?

And if you dig down in the mines You never see him in the gold, Though, from him, all that's glory s.h.i.+nes.

G.o.d is so good, he wears a fold Of heaven and earth across his face-- Like secrets kept for love untold.

But still I feel that his embrace Slides down by thrills, through all things made, Through sight and sound of every place:

As if my tender mother laid On my shut lids her kisses' pressure, Half waking me at night; and said, "Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser?"

--_Mrs. Browning._

FROM MY ARM-CHAIR.[13]

Am I a king that I should call my own This splendid ebon throne?

Or by what reason or what right divine, Can I proclaim it mine?

Only, perhaps, by right divine of song It may to me belong: Only because the spreading chestnut tree Of old was sung by me.

Well I remember it in all its prime, When in the summer time The affluent foliage of its branches made A cavern of cool shade.

There by the blacksmith's forge, beside the street, Its blossoms white and sweet Enticed the bees, until it seemed alive, And murmured like a hive.

And when the winds of autumn, with a shout, Tossed its great arms about, The s.h.i.+ning chestnuts, bursting from the sheath, Dropped to the ground beneath.

And now some fragments of its branches bare, Shaped as a stately chair, Have, by a hearth-stone found a home at last, And whisper of the past.

The Danish king could not in all his pride Repel the ocean tide.

But, seated in this chair, I can in rhyme Roll back the tide of time.

I see again, as one in vision sees, The blossoms and the bees, And hear the children's voices call, And the brown chestnuts fall.

I see the smithy with its fires aglow, I hear the bellows blow, And the shrill hammers on the anvil beat The iron white with heat.

And thus, dear children, have ye made for me This day a jubilee, And to my more than three-score years and ten Brought back my youth again.

The heart hath its own memory, like the mind And in it are enshrined The precious keepsakes, into which is wrought The giver's loving thought.

Only your love and your remembrance could Give life to this dead wood, And make these branches, leafless now so long, Blossom again in song.

--_Longfellow._

[13] Copyrighted by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Reprinted by permission of the publishers.

A SONG OF EASTER.[14]

Sing, children, sing, And the lily censers swing; Sing that life and joy are waking and that Death no more is king.

Sing the happy, happy tumult of the slowly bright'ning Spring; Sing, little children, sing, Sing, children, sing, Winter wild has taken wing.

Fill the air with the sweet tidings till the frosty echoes ring.

Along the eaves, the icicles no longer cling; And the crocus in the garden lifts its bright face to the sun; And in the meadow, softly the brooks begin to run; And the golden catkins, swing In the warm air of the Spring-- Sing, little children, sing.

Sing, children, sing, The lilies white you bring In the joyous Easter morning, for hopes are blossoming, And as earth her shroud of snow from off her breast doth fling, So may we cast our fetters off in G.o.d's eternal Spring; So may we find release at last from sorrow and from pain, Soon may we find our childhood's calm, delicious dawn again.

Sweet are your eyes, O little ones, that look with smiling grace, Without a shade of doubt or fear into the future's face.

Sing, sing in happy chorus, with happy voices tell That death is life, and G.o.d is good, and all things shall be well.

That bitter day shall cease In warmth and light and peace, That winter yields to Spring-- Sing, little children, sing.

--_Celia Thaxter._

[14] Copyrighted by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Reprinted by permission of the publishers.

THE JOY OF THE HILLS.[15]

I ride on the mountain tops, I ride; I have found my life and am satisfied.

Onward I ride in the blowing oats, Checking the field lark's rippling notes-- Lightly I sweep from steep to steep; O'er my head through branches high Come glimpses of deep blue sky; The tall oats brush my horse's flanks: Wild poppies crowd on the sunny banks; A bee booms out of the scented gra.s.s; A jay laughs with me as I pa.s.s.

I ride on the hills, I forgive, I forget Life's h.o.a.rd of regret-- All the terror and pain of a chafing chain.

Grind on, O cities, grind! I leave you a blur behind.

I am lifted elate--the skies expand; Here the world's heaped gold is a pile of sand.

Let them weary and work in their narrow walls; I ride with the voices of waterfalls.

I swing on as one in a dream--I swing.

Down the very hollows, I shout, I sing.

The world is gone like an empty word; My body's a bough in the wind,--my heart a bird.

--_Edwin Markham._

[15] By permission from Edwin Markham's "Joy of the Hills and Other Poems," copyright by Doubleday & McClure, New York.

IN BLOSSOM TIME.

Its O my heart, my heart, To be out in the sun and sing, To sing and shout in the fields about, In the balm and blossoming.

Sing loud, O bird in the tree; O bird, sing loud in the sky, And honey-bees, blacken the clover-beds; There are none of you as glad as I.

The leaves laugh low in the wind, Laugh low with the wind at play; And the odorous call of the flowers all Entices my soul away.