Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE FOOL'S PRAYER

THE royal feast was done; the King
Sought some new sport to banish care,
And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool,
Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!"

The jester doffed his cap and bells,
And stood the mocking court before;
They could not see the bitter smile
Behind the painted grin he wore.

He bowed his head, and bent his knee
Upon the monarch's silken stool;
His pleading voice arose: O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!

"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
The King, and sought his gardens cool,
And walked apart, and murmured low,
"Be merciful to me, a fool!"

1887.

Edward Rowland Sill.

32

36

40

THE DREAM OF EUGENE ARAM

'T WAS in the prime of summer time,
An evening calm and cool,

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
And souls untouched by sin;

To a level mead they came, and there
They drave the wickets in:

Pleasantly shone the setting sun
Over the town of Lynn.

Like sportive deer they coursed about,
And shouted as they ran,

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,
And his bosom ill at ease;

So he leaned his head on his hands, and
read

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;
With a fast and fervent grasp
He strained the dusky covers close,
And fixed the brazen hasp:
"O God! could I so close my mind,
And clasp it with a clasp!"

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

« PreviousContinue »