I have loved," she said, "Man is weak, God is dread; Yet the weakest man dies with his spirit at ease, Having poured such love-oil on the Saviour's feet, As I lavished for these." IX. Go, I cried, thou hast chosen the Human, and left the Divine! Then, at least, have the Human shared with thee, their wild berry-wine? Have they loved back thy love, and when strangers approached thee with blame, Have they covered thy fault with their kisses, and loved thee the same? Will sweep in the wrath of His judgment seas, If He deal with me sinning, but only the same And not gentler than these!" A SABBATH MORNING AT SEA. I. THE ship went on with solemn face : I bowed down weary in the place; Had weighed mine eyelids downward. II. Thick sleep, which shut all dreams from me, And quiet from emotion, Then brake away and left me free, Betwixt the heaven and ocean. III. The new sight, the new wondrous sight! Calm in a moonless, sunless light, IV. Two pale thin clouds did stand upon I think they did foresee the sun, V. Then flushed to radiance where they stood, Of shining saints half risen.— VI. I oft had seen the dawnlight run, As red wine, through the hills, and break But, here, no earth profaned the sun! VII, Away with joys fantastical! I would be humble to my worth, Self-guarded if self-doubted. Though here no earthly shadows fall, I, joying, grieving without earth, May desecrate without it. VIII. God's sabbath morning sweeps the waves: I would not praise the pageant high, And miss the dedicature: I, drawn down toward the sunless graves By force of natural things,—should I Exult in only nature? IX. I could not bear to sit alone In nature's fixed benignities, While my warm pulse was moving. Too dark thou art, O glittering sun, Too strait ye are, capacious seas, To satisfy the loving. X. It seems a better lot than so, To sit with friends beneath the beech, Or follow children as they go In pretty pairs, with softened speech XI. Love me, sweet friends, this sabbath day. The sea sings round me while Afar the hymn unaltered, ye roll And kneel, where once I knelt, to pray, And bless me deeper in your soul, Because your voice has faltered. G XII. And though this sabbath comes to me And chanting congregation, God's spirit shall give comfort. HE Who brooded soft on waters drear, XIII. He shall assist me to look higher, Where keep the saints, with harp and song, And, on that sea commixed with fire, |