The Alpine Sheep. They, in the valley's sheltering care, Soon crop the meadow's tender prime, And when the sod grows brown and bare, The shepherd strives to make them climb To airy shelves of pasture green, 103 That hang along the mountain's side, Where grass and flowers together lean, And down through mists the sunbeams slide. But nought can tempt the timid things Till in his arms their lambs he takes, Then, heedless of the rifts and breaks, And in those pastures, lifted fair, More dewy soft than lowland mead, The shepherd drops his tender care, And sheep and lambs together feed. This parable, by Nature breathed, 104 The Alpine Sheep. A blissful vision, through the night, Holding our little lamb asleep, — Saying," Arise, and follow me!" DEAR FRIEND, FAR OFF, MY LOST DESIRE. DEAR friend, far off, my lost desire, So far, so near, in woe and weal; Oh, loved the most when most I feel There is a lower and a higher : Known and unknown, — human, divine! Sweet human hand and lips and eye, Dear heavenly friend that canst not die, Mine, mine forever, ever mine! Strange friend, past, present, and to be, Thy voice is on the rolling air; I hear thee where the waters run; And in the setting thou art fair. 106 Dear Friend, far off, my lost Desire. What art thou, then? I cannot guess ; But though I seem in star and flower I do not therefore love thee less. Far off thou art, but ever nigh; I prosper, circled with thy voice; I shall not lose thee, though I die. THE PAST. THOU unrelenting Past! Strong are the barriers round thy dark domain, And fetters, sure and fast, Hold all that enter thy unbreathing reign. Far in thy realm withdrawn, Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom, Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb. Childhood, with all its mirth, Youth, Manhood, Age, that draws us to the ground, And last, Man's Life on earth, Glide to thy dim dominions, and are bound.、 Thou hast my better years, Thou hast my earlier friends, the good, the kind, Yielded to thee with tears, The venerable form, the exalted mind. |