Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/452

424 doth appear that, in the light of the New Dawn, greater and always greater grows the good, and nearer and always nearer. For now, with the rising sun, a company of angels in new flight lift their wings and come upon the day, and one is the bright Angel of Freedom, and one the strong Angel of Justice, and one is the undaunted Angel of Peace, and one the Angel of Hope Everlasting. With a great and wonderful burst of light they come, and with loud music of instruments and many voices.

''O Watcher of the Dawn! thou seest what is, but canst thou see what yet shall be?''

O ye who doubt! In the visible present lives the invisible future, and the hour that is brings the hour that shall be. If the Light grows, it shall not cease to grow; and the good that is brings the good that is to come. As with separate souls, so with peoples—the New Year, tho' it holds inheritance of shame and loss, holds, also, inheritance of striving, and accomplishment, and divine aspiration. Lo, the Light is climbing, not only of a New Year, but of a New Era for the awakening world.

UNDER THE STARS

A REQUIEM FOR AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS

I

stars, wherethrough his soul in flight

Past to the immortals! 'neath your ageless light

I stand perplext, remembering that keen spirit

Quenched in mid-strength; the world, that shall inherit

His legacy of genius, all deprived

Of wealth untold, the still ungathered fruit

Of that great art! What honey all unhived;

What unborn grandeurs; noble music mute!