Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/372

 356 ALICE CARY. [1840-50. The principle of love within Do not the darkest shadows serve to prove Leavens the life. The power of light? For, 'tis for fancied good, I claim, On tyrannous ways the feet of Freedom That men do wrong, not wrong's desire. press — Wrapping themselves, as 'twere, in flame The green bough broken off, lets sun- To cheat the fii'e. shine in ; Not what God gives, but what he takes, Uplifts us to the holiest height ; And where sin is, aboundeth righteousness, Much more than sin. On truth's rough crags Hfe's current breaks To diamond light. Man cannot be all selfish — separate good Is nowhere found beneath the shining From transient evil I do trust That we a final good shall draw ; That in confusion, death and dust sun: All adverse interests, truly understood. Resolve to one ! Are light and law. I do believe all worship doth ascend, That He whose glory shines among Whether from temple floors by heathen The eternal stars, descends to mark This foolish little atom swung Loose in the dark. trod, Or from the shrines where Christian prais- es blend, To the true God : But though I should not thus receive A sense of order and control, My God, I could not disbelieve Blessed forever — that His love prepares The raven's food — the sparrow's fall doth My sense of soul. see; And, simple, sinful as I am. He cares For though alas, I can but see Even for me. A hand's breadth backward, or before, I am, and since I am, must be Forevermore. BLESSED LOVE. MY CREED. "Love! blessed Love! if we could hang our walls with I DO not think the Providence unkind That gives its bad things to this life of ours. The red coats of a thousand rosy IMays, Surely they^ would not shine so well as thou dost. They are the thorns whereby we travelers Lighting our dusty days. blind, Feel out our flowers. " Without thee, what a dim and woeful story Our years would be, oh, excellence sub- I think hate shows the quality of love, That wrong attests that somewhere there lime ! Slip of the life eternal, brightly growing is right : In the low soil of time ! "