Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/56

28 And I, who near him stood,

Said: When the crop comes, then

There will be sobbing and sighing,

Weeping and wailing and crying,

Flame, and ashes, and woe.

II

It was an autumn day

When next I went that way.

And what, think you, did I see,

What was it that I heard,

What music was in the air?

The song of a sweet-voiced bird?

Nay—but the songs of many,

Thrilled through with praise and prayer.

Of all those voices not any

Were sad of memory;

But a sea of sunlight flowed,

A golden harvest glowed,

And I said: Thou only art wise,

God of the earth and skies!

And I praise Thee, again and again,

For the Sower whose name is Pain.

XXXI—"WHEN THE LAST DOUBT IS DOUBTED"

the last doubt is doubted,

The last black shadow flown;

When the last foe is routed;

When the night is over and gone—

Then, Love, O then! there will be rest and peace:

Sweet peace and rest that never thou hast known.