Page:Poems, now first collected, Stedman, 1897.djvu/59

 HELEN KELLER

, sightless visitant,

From what uncharted world

Hast voyaged into Life's rude sea,

With guidance scant;

As if some bark mysteriously

Should hither glide, with spars aslant

And sails all furled?

In what perpetual dawn,

Child of the spotless brow,

Hast kept thy spirit far withdrawn—

Thy birthright undefiled?

What views to thy sealed eyes appear?

What voices mayst thou hear

Speak as we know not how?

Of grief and sin hast thou,

O radiant child,

Even thou, a share? Can mortal taint

Have power on thee unfearing

The woes our sight, our hearing,

Learn from Earth's crime and plaint?

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