THE FOOL'S PRAYER THE royal feast was done; the King The jester doffed his cap and bells, He bowed his head, and bent his knee "No pity, Lord, could change the heart 12' From red with wrong to white as wool: The rod must heal the sin; but, Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool! "T is not by guilt the onward sweep Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay; 'Tis by our follies that so long We hold the earth from heaven away. 16 20 "These clumsy feet, still in the mire, Go crushing blossoms without end; These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust Among the heart-strings of a friend. 24 "The ill-timed truth we might have keptWho knows how sharp it pierced and stung! The word we had not sense to say Who knows how grandly it had rung! "Our faults no tenderness should ask, 28 The chastening stripes must cleanse them all; But for our blunders-oh, in shame Before the eyes of heaven we fall. "Earth bears no balsam for mistakes; Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool That did his will; but Thou, O Lord, Be merciful to me, a fool!" The room was hushed; in silence rose 1887. Edward Rowland Sill. 32 36 40 THE DREAM OF EUGENE ARAM 'T WAS in the prime of summer time, And four-and-twenty happy boys Came bounding out of school; There were some that ran, and some that leapt Like troutlets in a pool. Away they sped with gamesome minds To a level mead they came, and there Pleasantly shone the setting sun Like sportive deer they coursed about, Turning to mirth all things of earth As only boyhood can; But the usher sat remote from all, A melancholy man! His hat was off, his vest apart, To catch heaven's blessed breeze; 12 18 For a burning thought was in his brow, So he leaned his head on his hands, and The book between his knees. Leaf after leaf he turned it o'er, Nor ever glanced aside, 24 For the peace of his soul he read that book In the golden eventide; Much study had made him very lean, . And pale, and leaden-eyed. At last he shut the ponderous tome; Then leaping on his feet upright, Some moody turns he took,- Now up the mead, then down the mead, And past a shady nook, And, lo! he saw a little boy That pored upon a book. "My gentle lad, what is 't you read,— Romance or fairy fable? Or is it some historic page, Of kings and crowns unstable?" The young boy gave an upward glance."It is The Death of Abel.'" 30 36 42 48 |