Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/165

 1830-40.] WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER. 149 See ! the night is nearly past, And the morning dawns at last. Far behind, the shadows lie Dark upon the western sky ; While before, the east is gray Where the harbinger of day, Rounding up the azure cope. Flames, the morning-star of Hope ! Be not hasty ; be not rash ; Though its beams within you flash Calm endurance is sublime : Falter not, but bide your time. — Weary workers, work away ; God will lead the Better Day ! OUR CHILDREN. Thet are stricken, darkly stricken ; Faint and fainter grows each breath ; And the shadows round them thicken, Of the darkness that is Death. We are with them — bending o'er them — And the Soul in sorrow saith, " Would that I had passed before them, To the darkness that is Death ! " They are sleeping, coldly sleeping. In the graveyard still and lone. Where the winds, above them sweeping. Make a melancholy moan. Thickly round us — darkly o'er us — Is the pall of sorrow thrown ; And our heart-beats make the chorus Of that melancholy moan. They are waking, brightly waking. From the slumbers of the tomb. And, enrobed in Hght, forsaking Its impenetrable gloom. They are rising — they have risen — And their spirit-forms illume, In the darkness of Death's prison, The impenetrable gloom. They are passing, upward passing. Dearest beings of our love. And their spirit-forms are glassing In the beautiful Above : There we see them — there we hear them — Through our di-eams they ever move ; And we long to be a-near them, In the beautiful Above. They are going, gently going, In their angel-robes to stand, Where the river of Life is flowing In the far-off Silent Land. We shall mourn them — we shall miss them. From our broken little band ; But our souls shall still caress them. In the far-off Silent Land. They are singing, sweetly singing. Far beyond the vail of Night, Where the angel-harps are rmging, And the Day is ever bright. We can love them — we can greet them — From this land of dimmer light. Till God takes us hence to meet them Where the Day is ever bright. A HYMN OF THE DAY THAT IS DAWNING. If the promise of the present Be not a hollow cheat. If true-hearted men and women Prove faithful and discreet. If none falter who are hoping And contending for the Right, Then a time is surely coming, As a day-beam from the night — When the landless shall have foothold In fee upon the soil, And for his wife and little ones Bend to his willing toil :