Page:The Soul of a Century.djvu/121

 You raised me from the dust of commonplace And set for me a far-reached, daring goal Before whose scope I shudder with mere thought. You have revived my faded, drooping will And in the long-stilled strings within my heart You struck again a mighty sounding chord, And often when I madly would rejoice And pause mid tears, ’tis you instead of I That strikes against the strings with starry wings. You taught me my lone journey’s final goal You roused me when through inactivity In futile grief I wasted treasured days. ’twas you who showed me that the very song That quivers in a nightingale’s young throat Is as a sister to my wandering chant, And that my soul, that radiant bright spark, Is but a part of Nature and its plans, Nature that in an ever changing form Is a reflection of God’s eternal cheeks! You taught me that the waters, virgin woods, The hillsides in their jeweled autumn garb The heavens shield ablaze with gleaming stars Though clear or stormy with tempestuous wrath, That all these are my souls most cherished share, That with their weird, majestic symphony, I am allowed to blend my grief and joy. You stirred my being; whether boundless joys Are woven in between the throes of life With yearning winding ivy or roses of love, Or whether sorrow with wide open arms Embrace me with a wreath of bitter herbs, And pours its bitter droplets into my wounded heart, To you my song keeps turning o’er and o’er, You stand by me in life’s disturbances, You press for me my feeble dying eyes, And when some day upon my grave will stand A stone, lone witness to my memory And its inscription will have disappeared, Then scatter roses over the crumbling wall And intertwine green ivy about the sinking stone, And in the graveyard’s darkened silent nook, Let a nightingale nest with his noisy brood, That in his sweet impassioned melody He may stir my soul in timeless ecstasy.