293 Hope. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 2 The dreams that bless the weary soul, 3 Hope leads the child to plant the flower, The man to sow the seed; 4 Nor leaves fulfilment to her hour But prompts again to deed. And ere upon the old man's dust We look through falling tears, to trust 294 After Schiller. Sarah Flower Adams. Fruitful Seed. I A nameless man, amid a crowd That thronged the daily mart, Let fall a word of hope and love Unstudied from the heart. 2 A whisper on the tumult thrown, A transitory breath, It raised a brother from the dust, I The world may change from old to new, 3 O germ, O fount, O word of love! From new to old again; Yet hope and heaven, for ever true, Within man's heart remain. O thought at random cast! Ye were but little at the first, 2 Reason's noble aspiration, Truth in growing clearness saw; Conscience spoke its condemnation, Or proclaimed the Eternal Law. While thine inward revelations [heard, Told thy saints their prayers were Prophets to the guilty nations Spoke thine everlasting word. 3 Lord, that word abideth ever; Revelation is not sealed; Answering unto man's endeavor, Truth and Right are still revealed. That which came to ancient sages, Greek, Barbarian, Roman, Jew, Written in the heart's deep pages, Shines today, forever new! Samuel Longfellow. 2 Some great cause, God's new Messiah, Offers each the bloom or blight, And the choice goes by forever 'Twixt that darkness and that light. Then to side with Truth is noble Of the faith they had denied. 3 Though the cause of Evil prosper, Yet 'tis Truth alone is strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be Wrong,Yet that scaffold sways the future, And, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above his own! James Russell Lowell. |