The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-10-30
Have borne unquenchcd for fourscore
A marx OF the Eternal God.

"Nen think Il Is an awful sight
To see a soul just set adrift
On that drear voyage from whose night
The ominous shadows never lit;
But tits more awful TO behold
A little infant newly born,
Whose tiny hands unconscious hold
The keys OF darkness and OF morn.
milne held them once; / flung away
The KEYS that might have open set
The golden slulces Of the day
nut clutch the keys OF darkness yet.
7 hear the rcapers singing go
Into Gods harvest: !, that might
with them nave chosen, here below
Grope shudderihg at the gates OF night
-Extreme JUNCTION.
OF poems more strictly deserving TO be
called devotional" than any OF those
quoted above, Lowell has written several.
"BIbliolaters." a vigorous protest against
too rigid observance OF the letter at the
EXPENSE OF the spirit, contains no lines Of
greater tenderness and beauty than these:
"As If the Shepherd who from outer cold
Leads all His shivering lambs TO one sure
fold
Were careful for the fashion of His
crook
There is no broken reed SO poor and
base,
No rush. the bending tilt OF swamp-fy
blue.
But He Herewith the ravening wolf can
chase,
And guide His hocks to fields and past
ures new.
Through ways unlocked for and through
many lands,
Far from the rich folds built with human
hands,
The gracious footprints Of His love 1
trace"
Not always unimpeded can I pray,
No one who knows what Thomas a KEN
| pis quantity terms the withdrawal Of the
grace of devotion" but must be touched
at the thought Of the successful nan
pausing in the midst Of the honors and
laurels which would seem 10 tend 10 fos-
ter self-complacency, and writing these
humble words:
Nor, plying saint, thine intercession
claim.
Too closely clings the burden Of the
day,
And all the mint and anise that I pay
But swells my debt and deepens my self
blame,
"Shall I less patience have than Thou
who know
That Thou revisitest all who wait for
Thee;
Nor only hll'st the u~nsounded deeps be-
low.
But dost refresh with punctual overflow
The clefts where unregarded MOSES be?
1.-THE dropping seaweed hears, in night
abyssed.
Far and more far the waves receding
shocks.
Nor doubts. for all the darkness and the
mist,
That the pale shepherdess will keep her
tryst,
And homeward lead again her foam
feeced flocks.
80, though Thy healing waters far with
draw,
7, too. can wait, and feed on hope Of
Thee
And of the dear recurrence of Thy law,
Sure nat the parting grace that morning
saw
Abides its time to come in search of me-"
-Seaweed.
"a Contrast" is another Of his works,
more subjective in style and more per-
sonal in application. 1t touches on the
same theme which is the strain OF THE
Vision of Sir Launfal":
'"Thy love Thou sentest oft 10 me-,
And still as oft l sent it back;
Thy messengers I could not see
In those who everything did Lack
The poor, the outcast and the black.
pride held his hand before mine eyes;
The world with lattery stuffed mine
ears;
I looked TO see a monarch's guise.
Nor dreamed Thy love would knock
for years
Poor, naked, fettered, full OF tears.
"Yet when l sent my love to Thee,
Thou with a smile didst take ii in,
And entertain'dst royalty.
Though grimed with earth, with hunger
thin,
And leprous with the faint Of sin.
Now, every day Thy love I meet,
AS DER the earth 1t wanders wide,
With weary step and bleeding feet,
Still knocking at the door of pride,
And offering love. though still denied"
One can clearly trace through all Lowell
ever wrote the effect which an unfalter-
ing faith in immortality had on his trend
Of thought. That the current of his spec
ulation on this subject moved in different
channels at different times can be seen
by comparing after the Burial "On
the Death of a Friends Child" "Thre-
nodia," rabbi ~Jehosha," and Others II
his poems. rabbi Jehosha" perhaps ex-
presses more clearly the poets concep-
tons Of death and Immortality han any
Of the others. which seem TO be the re-
Elections Of passing moods. rather than
settled beliefs:
"Rabbl Jehosha had the skill
To know that Heaven is in Gods will;
And doing that. though for a space
One heartbeat long. may win n grace
As full Of grandeur and OF glow
As Princes Of the Chariot know"
Almost a ~pharaphrase Of the Psalmist's
words: "My soul gaspeth unto Thee;
when shall 1 appear before the pres
ence Of Go1?" are the l%ines-still taken
from rabbi Jehosha"-
Yet l perhaps, poor earthly clod,
Could l forget myself in Cod
which voice the same longing Of the
soul, tircd with beating her wings against
mortalitys barriers, 10 find release in
DEATH
"Or, rather. with LIES essence blent.
TO be led home from Punishment"
Rabbi Jehosha.
Translation OF King Edward Conf.s.or.
This festival. which commemorate the
last Of the Saxon Kings OF England. him
who may be regarded as pre-eminently
the English national saint, refers 10 the
"translating" or removing OF the body Of
the King from the original resting place
TO a sumptuous tomb prepared for il in
Westminster Abbey in ll63. Edward was
the founder Of the great Abbey Of West
minister, or rather he built and richly
endowed a new and more magnificent
church on the site Of one already exist
ing there. The great building was COM