heart” I said, “is all for you,”
But lo! She left the door ajar and all the world came flocking through.

She needed me. I learned to know the royal joy that service brings,
She was so helpless that I grew to love all little helpless things.

She trusted me, and I who ne’er had trusted, save in self, grew cold
With panic lest this precious life should know no stronger, surer hold.

She lay and smiled and in her eyes I watched my narrow world grow broad,
Within her tiny, crumpled hand I touched the mighty hand of God!

Spring in Nazareth

“THE Spring is come!” a shepherd saith;
  Sing, sweet Mary,
“The Spring is come to Nazareth
And swift the Summer hurrieth.”
  Sing low, the barley and the corn!

Across the field a path is set—
  Sing, sweet Mary,
Green shadow in a golden net—
The tears of night have left it wet.
  Sing low, the barley and the corn!

The Babe forsakes His mother’s knee,
  Haste, sweet Mary—
See how He runneth merrily,
One foot upon the path hath He—
  Green, green, the barley and the corn!

The mother calls with mother-fear—
  Hush, sweet Mary!
Another sound is in His ear,
A sound he cannot choose but hear—
  Hush, hush, the barley and the corn!

Far and still far—through years yet dim
  List, sweet Mary!
From o’er the waking earth’s green rim
Another Springtime calleth Him!
  Bend low, the barley and the corn!

Call low, call high, and call again,
  Ah, poor Mary!
Know, by thy heart’s prophetic pain,
That one day thou shalt call in vain—
  Moan, moan, the barley and the corn!

O mother! make thine arms a shield,
  Sing, sweet Mary!
While love still holds what love must yield
Hide well the path across the field!—
  Sing low, the barley and the corn!

. . . . .

“The Spring is come!” a shepherd saith;
  Rest thee, Mary—
The passing years are but a breath
And Spring still comes to Nazareth—
  Green, green, the barley and the corn!

Inheritance

THERE lived a man who raised his hand and said,
  “I will be great!”
And through a long, long life he bravely knocked
  At Fame’s closed gate.

A son he left who, like his sire, strove
  High place to win;—
Worn out, he died and, dying, left no trace
  That he had been.

He also left a son, who, without care
  Or planning how,
Bore the fair letters of a deathless fame
  Upon his brow.

“Behold a genius, filled with fire divine!”
  The people cried;
Not knowing that to make him what he was
  Two men had died.

Song of the Sleeper

SLEEPER rest quietly
  Deep underground!
Lord of your kingdom
  Of murmurous sound.
Hear the grass growing
Sweet for the mowing;
Hear the stars sing
  As they travel around—
Grass blade and star dust,
You, I, and all of us,
One with the cause of us,
  Deep underground!

Murmur not, sleeper!
  Yours is the key
To all things that were and
  To all things that be—
While the lark’s trilling,
While the grain’s filling,
Laugh with the wind
  At Life’s Riddle-me-ree!
How you were born of it?
Why was the thorn of it?
Where the new morn of it?
  Yours is the Key!

Sleep deeper, brother!
  Sleep and forget
Red lips that trembled
  Eyes that were wet—

Though love be weeping,
Turn to your sleeping,
Life has no giving
  That death need regret.
Here at the end of all
Hear the Beginning call,
Life’s but death’s seneschal—
  Sleep and forget!

The Tyrant

ONE comes with foot insistent to my door,
  Calling my name;
Nor voice nor footstep have I heard before,
Yet clear the calling sounds and o’er and o’er—
It seems the sunlight burns along the floor
  With paler flame!

“’Tis vain to call with morning on the wing,
  With noon so near,
With Life a dancer in the masque of Spring
And Youth new wedded with a golden ring—
When falls the night and birds have ceased to sing
  My heart may hear!

“’Tis vain to pause. Pass, friend, upon your way!
  I may not heed;
Too swift the hours; too sweet, too brief the day:
Only one life, one spring, one perfect May—
I crush each moment, with its sweets to stay
  Life’s joyous greed!

“Call not again! The wind is roaming by
  Across the heath—
The Wind’s a tell-tale and will bear your sigh
To dim the smiling gladness of the sky

Or kill the spring’s first violets that lie
  In purple sheath—

“If you must call, call low! My heart grows still,
  Still as my breath,
Still as your smile, O Ancient One! A chill
Strikes through the sun upon the window-sill—
I know you now—I follow where you will,
  O tyrant Death!”