Page:Impressions- A Book of Verse.djvu/74

 REPENTANCE

HEN suddenly all self-condemned we stand And see the chaff lie thick upon life's floor,— The besom, waved with over zealous hand, Sweeps grain with chaff its eager strokes before, And all our hopes of harvest seem undone. But, the long winter of repentance o'er, The gentle spring returns with shower and sun And where was erst gray dust beside the door One day is half imagined and half seen A sudden lightly scattered veil of green And faint hope trembles into life once more.