Page:Flower of youth, poems in war time, Tynan, 1915.djvu/46

44 TO TWO BEREAVED

( G. S. C., 20th October, R. S. C, 28th October 1914)

in your days of worst distress,

The empty days that stretch before,

When all your sweet's turned bitterness;—

The Hand of the Lord is at your door.

And when at morn beside your bed

Grief waits to tell you it is true,

That both your darling boys are dead;

The Mercy of the Lord bends down to you.

When you are frozen and stripped bare

And over your joy is raised a stone,

The foot of the Lord is on your stair;

The Lord's mercy is never done.

More than the joys of common men,—

The gifts of the Lord are past desire—

They shall be given to you again,

They shall sit down beside your fire.