Night passed, day shone, And Theocrite was gone. With God a day endures alway, 66 God said in Heaven, " Nor day nor night "Now brings the voice of my delight." Then Gabriel, like a rainbow's birth, Entered in flesh, the empty cell, And morning, evening, noon, and night, And from a boy, to youth he grew : The man put off the stripling's hue : The man matured and fell away And ever o'er the trade he bent, (He did God's will; to him, all one If on the earth or in the sun.) God said, "A praise is in mine ear; "There is no doubt in it, no fear : "So sing old worlds, and so "New worlds that from my footstool go. “Clearer loves sound other ways: "I miss my little human praise." Then forth sprang Gabriel's wings, off fell The flesh disguise, remained the cell. 'Twas Easter Day: he flew to Rome, And paused above Saint Peter's dome. In the tiring-room close by With his holy vestments dight, And all his past career Came back upon him clear, Since when, a boy, he plied his trade, And in his cell, when death drew near, And rising from the sickness drear To the East with praise he turned, "I bore thee from thy craftman's cell, "And set thee here; I did not well. "Vainly I left my angel's-sphere, “Vain was thy dream of many a year. "Thy voice's praise seemed weak; it dropped"Creation's chorus stopped! "Go back and praise again "The early way-while I remain. "With that weak voice of our disdain, "Back to the cell and poor employ: Theocrite grew old at home; A new Pope dwelt in Peter's Dome. One vanished as the other died: MEETING AT NIGHT. I. THE grey sea and the long black land; II. Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach; PARTING AT MORNING. ROUND the cape of a sudden came the sea, And the sun looked over the mountain's rim— And straight was a path of gold for him, And the need of a world of men for me. SAUL. SAID Abner," At last thou art come! "Ere I tell, ere thou speak, "Kiss my cheek, wish me well!" Then I wished it, And did kiss his cheek: And he, "Since the King, oh my friend, For thy countenance sent, Nor drunken nor eaten have we; Nor, until from his tent Thou return with the joyful assurance The king liveth yet, Shall our lip with the honey be brightened, -The water, be wet. "For out of the black mid-tent's silence, A space of three days, No sound hath escaped to thy servants, Of prayer nor of praise, To betoken that Saul and the Spirit Have ended their strife, And that faint in his triumph the monarch Sinks back upon life. "Yet now my heart leaps, O beloved! God's child, with his dew On thy gracious gold hair, and those lilies |