And our hearts intenser grow
     As the vultures come and go.

     Sleeping, waking, on we glide,
     Dreamful and unsatisfied,

     Pilgrims on a foreign shore,
     Wanting something evermore,

     All the shadow in our eyes,
     All the substance in the skies.

      By and by another sleep,
      Angels watch and ward to keep.

      By and by, from wakeful eyes,
      Nothing of the old surprise,

      All pure dreams of earth fulfilled,
      Every sense with gladness thrilled.

      Then are we, no more denied,
      With Thy likeness satisfied.

* * * * *

SACRIFICE

      Sacrifice! therein
    I find no superstition of the past,
    But one of Truth’s great words, all life within,
      As into chaos cast.

      God, God put it there,
    A trumpet-note to every living soul,
    A prophecy of all that is most fair
      Through darkness to the goal.

      I can not efface
    The record of this wonder-working Word,
    Nor in my memory but faintly trace
      Stern voices I have heard.

      Voices come by day
    Between life’s lightning-flash and thunder-peal,
    And sooner heaven and earth shall pass away
      Than what they there reveal.

      Voices come at night
    Amid the silence of deluding cares,
    And pain flows through the darkness and grows bright,
      And knowledge unawares.

      Voices fill the strife
    To which I give the beauty of my days,
    And testify that sacrifice is life,
      Availing prayer and praise.

      Life retained is lost,
    The tocsin of interminable war;
    And life relinquished is of life the cost,
      Which shineth as a star.

      Tongue can never tell
    God’s revelations in this mighty Word,
    Nor how the mystery of life they spell,
      With which all hearts are stirred.

      I continue mute,
    In joyful awe before the Infinite,
    Until at length eternity transmute
      My darkness into light.

      I can only speak
    An earth-born language, that does not reveal
    The infinitude of duty which I seek
      To utter and but feel.

      Duty! heart of joy! 
    Which giveth strength to suffer and endure,
    Till self-forgetfulness in God’s employ
      Enthrones a life secure.

      Shepherd of the sheep,
    To whom God gives the universal charge,
    I think of Thy devotion and I weep,
      Thy love appears so large!

  And I think of all

The grief which strengthened Thy exalting hand,
Until great tears of Easter gladness fall,

    To think in Thee I stand,