POETRY FROM PERIODICALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13488, 15 May 1907, Page 9

POETRY FROM PERIODICALS

LOVE'S SACRIFICE. • - " THE way lies through the Valley," Sorrow cried, ' « " Not on the wind-swept height. In darkness up the trackless mountain side, Beyonu the Plains of Light. Enter my House, and let thy tears fall free: There 1 will bide with thee." r " Ah! must I go companionless and lorn Through these uncharted Lands?" Then Lore, perceiving how my heart was torn, ■ - ■ Drew near and took my hands. "Lore is not Love that Sorrow can set free. Dear, I will bide with thee." . _ . " I who have ainn'd so oft against the Light! And Tnou, oh spotless dove! I, who have been a wanton in thy sight! I am unworthy, , Love." , •. " Dear, Sorrow teaches us to bend the knee. We both will bide with thee!" y - LONGFELLOW. 1807-1907. ABOVE his grave the grass and snow •■• Their soft antiphonal strophes write: Moonrise and daybreak come and go: . Summer by summer on the height ' i The thrushes find melodious breath. Here let no vagrant winds that blow Across the spaces of the night f Whisper of death. ■■• They do not die who leave their thought Imprinted on: some deathless ; page. . Themselves may pass; the spell they wrought Endures on earth from age to age. : And thou, whose voice "but yesterday Fell upon charmed listening ears, • Thou shalt not know the touch of years; Thou boldest time and chance at bay. Thou livest in thy living word ; . As when its cadence first was heard. ..- 0 gracious Poet and benign. Beloved presence! now as then Thou standest by the hearths of men. Their fireside joys and griefs are thine;•' «-•« Thou speakest to them of their dead. * They listen and are oomforted. They break the bread and pour the , wine Of life with thee, as in those days Men saw thee passing on the street Beneath the elms— reverend feet That walk in far celestial ways! THOMAS BAILEY ALDBICH, in "the Atlantic Monthly : ■ v l