Page:Preludes, Meynell, 1875.djvu/118

82 Not aves now, but beads,—you being gone.

I was not worthy to be comfortless,

I find; and feasts broke in upon my fasts;

And innocent distractions and desires

Surprised me in my penitential tears.

For my absent child God gives me a child in Spring;

New seasons and the fresh and innocent earth,

Ever new years and children of the years,

Kin to the young thoughts of my weary heart,

Chime with the young thoughts of my weary heart,

My kin in all the world. And He Himself

Is young i' the quiet time of cold and snows.

(Mary! who fledst to Egypt with Him; Joseph!

And thou whose tomb I kissed in Padua,

Protect this perilous childhood in my heart!)

But oh, to-night, I know not why, to-night

Out of the earth and sky, out of the sea

My consolations fade. These empty arms

I stretch no more unto the beautiful world,

But clasp them close about the lonely heart

No other arms will clasp. What is thy pain,

What is thy pain, inexplicable heart?