wide stretch of the sea, Drifting, slowly drifting on into God's eternity; With broken rudder, sailless mast, and oars that idly ride, From home and shore I drift upon the outward-going tide. Drifting, slowly drifting through the vessels in the bay, From those I love upon the shore, I drift and drift away. Drifting, slowly drifting to the great wide stretch of the sea. The breezes fresh from Paradise blow softly over me; My heart, once filled with strange unrest, is grown so calm and still! I look beyond the rolling sea to God's immortal hill, Drifting, slowly drifting on with heart and lips that pray, From those I love upon the shore, I drift and drift away. We The MARY MAPES DODGE. [U. S. A.] THE TWO MYSTERIES. know not what it is, dear, this sleep so deep and still; folded hands, the awful calm, the cheek so pale and chill; The lids that will not lift again, though we may call and call; strange, white solitude of peace that settles over all. The Drifting, slowly drifting, where the first Yet, oh, how dear it is to us - this life white streak of the day we live and see! Body, I pray you, let me go!" (It is a Soul that striveth so.) 'Body, I hear dim sounds afar "Comrade, your frame is worn and frail, Thus strove a Being; Beauty fain, As if that Spirit, looking back, WILLIAM WETMORE STORY. [U. s. A.] IO VICTIS! I SING the hymn of the conquered, who fell in the Battle of Life, The hymn of the wounded, the beaten, who died overwhelmed in the strife; Not the jubilant song of the victors, for whom the resounding acclaim Of nations was lifted in chorus, whose brows wore the chaplet of fame,But the hymn of the low and the humble, the weary, the broken in heart, Who strove and who failed, acting bravely a silent and desperate part; Whose youth bore no flower on its branches, whose hopes burned in ashes away, From whose hands slipped the prize they had grasped at, who stood at the dying of day With the wreck of their life all around them, unpitied, unheeded, alone, With Death swooping down o'er their failure, and all but their faith overthrown. |