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WOMAN'S RIGHTS

 
Grave on her monumental pile;
She won from vice, by virtue's smile,
Her dazzling crown, her sceptered throne,
Affection's wreath, a happy home;
 
 
The right to worship deep and pure,
To bless the orphan, feed the poor;
Last at the cross to mourn her Lord,
First at the tomb to hear his word;
 
 
To fold an angel's wings below;
And hover o'er the couch of woe;
To nurse the Bethlehem babe so sweet,
The right to sit at Jesus' feet;
 
 
To form the bud for bursting bloom,
The hoary head with joy to crown;
In short, the right to work and pray,
"To point to heaven and lead the way."
 

Lynn, Mass., May 6, 1876.

THE NEW CENTURY

 
Thou God-crowned, patient century,
Thine hour hath come! Eternity
Draws nigh – and, beckoning from above,
One hundred years, aflame with Love,
Again shall bid old earth good-by —
And, lo, the light! far heaven is nigh!
New themes seraphic, Life divine,
And bliss that wipes the tears of time
Away, will enter, when they may,
And bask in one eternal day.
 
 
'Tis writ on earth, on leaf and flower:
Love hath one race, one realm, one power.
Dear God! how great, how good Thou art
To heal humanity's sore heart;
To probe the wound, then pour the balm —
A life perfected, strong and calm.
The dark domain of pain and sin
Surrenders – Love doth enter in,
And peace is won, and lost is vice:
Right reigns, and blood was not its price.
 

Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., January, 1901.

TO MY ABSENT BROTHER

 
Dwells there a shadow on thy brow —
A look that years impart?
Does there a thought of vanished hours
Come ever o'er thy heart?
 
 
Or give those earnest eyes yet back
An image of the soul,
Mirrored in truth, in light and joy,
Above the world's control?
 
 
So may their gaze be ever fraught
With utterance deep and strong,
Yielding a holy strength to right,
A stern rebuke to wrong!
 
 
Thy soul, upborne on wisdom's wings,
In brighter morn will find
Life hath a higher recompense
Than just to please mankind.
 
 
Supreme and omnipresent God,
Guide him in wisdom's way!
Give peaceful triumph to the truth,
Bid error melt away!
 

Lynn, Mass., November 8, 1866.

SIGNS OF THE HEART

 
Come to me, joys of heaven!
Breathe through the summer air
A balm – the long-lost leaven
Dissolving death, despair!
O little heart,
To me thou art
A sign that never can depart.
 
 
Come to me, peace on earth!
From out life's billowy sea, —
A wave of welcome birth, —
The Life that lives in Thee!
O Love divine,
This heart of Thine
Is all I need to comfort mine.
 
 
Come when the shadows fall,
And night grows deeply dark;
The barren brood, O call
With song of morning lark;
And from above,
Dear heart of Love,
Send us thy white-winged dove.
 

Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., 1899.

FLOWERS

 
Mirrors of morn
Whence the dewdrop is born,
Soft tints of the rainbow and skies —
Sisters of song,
What a shadowy throng
Around you in memory rise!
 
 
Far do ye flee,
From your green bowers free,
Fair floral apostles of love,
Sweetly to shed
Fragrance fresh round the dead,
And breath of the living above.
 
 
Flowers for the brave —
Be he monarch or slave,
Whose heart bore its grief and is still!
Flowers for the kind —
Aye, the Christians who wind
Wreaths for the triumphs o'er ill!
 

Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., May 21, 1904.

TO THE OLD YEAR – 1865

 
Pass on, returnless year!
The track behind thee is with glory crowned;
The turf where thou hast trod is holy ground.
Pass proudly to thy bier!
 
 
Chill was thy midnight day,
While Justice grasped the sword to hold her throne,
And on her altar our loved Lincoln's own
Great willing heart did lay.
 
 
Thy purpose hath been won!
Thou point'st thy phantom finger, grim and cold,
To the dark record of our guilt unrolled,
And smiling, say'st, "'Tis done!
 
 
"This record I will bear
To the dim chambers of eternity —
The chain and charter I have lived to see
Purged by the cannon's prayer;
 
 
"Convulsion, carnage, war;
The pomp and tinsel of unrighteous power;
Bloated oppression in its awful hour, —
I, dying, dare abhor!"
 
 
One word, receding year,
Ere thou grow tremulous with shadowy night!
Say, will the young year dawn with wisdom's light
To brighten o'er thy bier?
 
 
Or we the past forget,
And heal her wounds too tenderly to last?
Or let today grow difficult and vast
With traitors unvoiced yet?
 
 
Though thou must leave the tear, —
Hearts bleeding ere they break in silence yet,
Wrong jubilant and right with bright eye wet, —
Thou fast expiring year,
 
 
Thy work is done, and well:
Thou hast borne burdens, and may take thy rest,
Pillow thy head on time's untired breast.
Illustrious year, farewell!
 

Lynn, Mass., January 1, 1866.

INVOCATION FOR 1868

 
Father of every age,
Of every rolling sphere,
Help us to write a deathless page
Of truth, this dawning year!
 
 
Help us to humbly bow
To Thy all-wise behest —
Whate'er the gift of joy or woe,
Knowing Thou knowest best.
 
 
Aid our poor soul to sing
Above the tempest's glee;
Give us the eagle's fearless wing,
The dove's to soar to Thee!
 
 
All-merciful and good,
Hover the homeless heart!
Give us this day our daily food
In knowing what Thou art!
 

Swampscott, Mass., January 1, 1868.

CHRISTMAS MORN

 
Blest Christmas morn, though murky clouds
Pursue thy way,
Thy light was born where storm enshrouds
Nor dawn nor day!
 
 
Dear Christ, forever here and near,
No cradle song,
No natal hour and mother's tear,
To thee belong.
 
 
Thou God-idea, Life-encrowned,
The Bethlehem babe —
Beloved, replete, by flesh embound —
Was but thy shade!
 
 
Thou gentle beam of living Love,
And deathless Life!
Truth infinite, – so far above
All mortal strife,
 
 
Or cruel creed, or earth-born taint:
Fill us today
With all thou art – be thou our saint,
Our stay, alway.
 

December, 1898.

EASTER MORN

 
Gently thou beckonest from the giant hills
The new-born beauty in the emerald sky,
And wakening murmurs from the drowsy rills —
O gladsome dayspring! 'reft of mortal sigh
To glorify all time – eternity —
With thy still fathomless Christ-majesty.
 
 
E'en as Thou gildest gladdened joy, dear God,
Give risen power to prayer; fan Thou the flame
Of right with might; and midst the rod,
And stern, dark shadows cast on Thy blest name,
Lift Thou a patient love above earth's ire,
Piercing the clouds with its triumphal spire.
 
 
While sacred song and loudest breath of praise
Echo amid the hymning spheres of light, —
With heaven's lyres and angels' loving lays, —
Send to the loyal struggler for the right,
Joy – not of time, nor yet by nature sown,
But the celestial seed dropped from Love's throne.
 
 
Prolong the strain "Christ risen!" Sad sense, annoy
No more the peace of Soul's sweet solitude!
Deep loneness, tear-filled tones of distant joy,
Depart! Glad Easter glows with gratitude —
Love's verdure veils the leaflet's wondrous birth —
Rich rays, rare footprints on the dust of earth.
 
 
Not life, the vassal of the changeful hour,
Nor burdened bliss, but Truth and Love attest
The solemn splendor of immortal power, —
The ever Christ, and glorified behest,
Poured on the sense which deems no suffering vain
That wipes away the sting of death – sin, pain.
 

Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., April 18, 1900.