Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/476

 CAROLINE A. CHAMBERLIN In the year 1853, Ward and Taylor, booksellers and publishers, Cincinnati, printed a volume of poems by Mrs. C. A. Chamberlin, which was reviewed with favor by journalists of acknowledged ability. Mrs. Chamberlin had been for several years a popular contributor to the Cincinnati newspapers. When her volume was published, she resided with her husband at Oxford, Ohio. About the year 1858 they emigrated to California. THE HIDDEN LIFE. Pale toiler, with the brow of care, And thoughtful, anxious eye Scarce raised to note yon flow'rets fair, Or radiance of the sky : Toilest thou for gems, whose quenchless ray Lights thy bless'd spirit's shrine ? Then, what thou call'st thine own to-day, To-morrow still calls thine. Toil as becomes thy heavenly birth, While waves of time shall roll ; For there's no poverty on earth, Like that within the soul. Turn from the scenes of care and strife Which ever round thee rise. And hold in thy sweet inward life, Communion with the skies. For when thou yearn'st for wings, to be With spirits pure in heaven, Pure spirits will come down to thee, And heaven on earth be given. For oft they come with pitying eyes, And gentle, noiseless tread. The links between us and the skies — Our loved and holy dead. We think of them in evening hours. And in the morn's first light ; We link their memories with the flowers. And all things pure and bright. We weep, as through the still night air We gaze on some loved star ; Weep, though we deem them seraphs there, In those pure homes afar. We call them from the realms of death, With love which cannot die, And list to hear a word or breath — But there is no reply ! For there are sounds Avhich fall alone Upon the spirit's ear : We must be like the loved we mourn, If we those sounds would hear. THE SONS OF ART. The spirit's wreaths alone have twined The present with the past; And the influence of one mighty mind In every soul is cast ; And though their forms from earth have fled. The glorious Sons of Art, — ( 460 )