With dizzy wings and dainty craft,
  In green and gold, the humming-bird
  Dashed here and there, and touched and quaffed
  The honey-dew, then flashed and whirred,
  And vanished like the feathered shaft

  That glitters from a random bow. 
  The flies were buzzing in the sun,
  The bees were busy in the snow
  Of lilies, and the spider spun,
  And waited for his prey below.

  With sail aloft and sail adown,
  And motion neither slow nor swift,
  With dark-brown hull and shadow brown,
  Half-way between two skies adrift,
  The barque went dreaming toward the town.

  ’Twas Sunday in the silent street,
  And Sunday in the silent sky. 
  The peace of God came down to meet
  The throng that laid their labor by,
  And rested, weary hands and feet.

  Ah, sweet the scene which caught the glance
  Of eyes that with the morning woke,
  And, from their window in the manse,
  Looked up through sprays of elm and oak
  Into the sky’s serene expanse,

  And off upon the distant wood,
  And down into the garden’s close,
  And over, where his chapel stood
  In ivy, reaching to its rose,
  Waiting the Sunday multitude!

  VI.

  A red rose in her raven hair
  Whose curls forbade the plait and braid,
  The bride slid down the oaken stair,
  And mantled like a bashful maid,
  As, seated in the waiting chair,

  Behind the fragrant urn, she poured
  The nectar of the morn’s repast;
  But fairer lady, fonder lord,
  In happier hall ne’er broke their fast
  With sweeter bread, at prouder board.

  And then they rose with common will,
  And sought the parlor, cool and dim. 
  “Sing, love!” he said.  “The birds grow still,
  And wait with me to hear your hymn.” 
  She swept a low, preluding trill—­

  A spray of sound—­across the keys
  That felt her fingers for the first;
  And then, from simplest cadences,
  A reverent melody she nursed,
  And gave it voice in words like these: 

  “From full forgetfulness of pain,
  From joy to opening joy again,
  With bird and flower, and hill and tree,
  We lift our eyes and hands, to thee,
  To greet thee, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth

  “That thou dost bathe our souls anew
  With balm and boon of heavenly dew,
  And smilest in our upward eyes
  From the far blue of smiling skies,
  We bless thee, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth!

  “For human love and love divine,
  For love of ours and love of thine,
  For heaven on earth and heaven above—­
  To thee and us twin homes of love—­
  We thank thee, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth!

  “Oh dove-like wings, so wide unfurled
  In brooding calm above the world! 
  Waft us your holy peace, and raise
  The incense of our morning praise
  Up to our Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth!”