1798?

Sae dear's the joy was bought, John,
Sae free the battle fought, John,
That sinfu' man e'er brought

To the land o' the leal!

Oh! dry your glistening e'e, John!
My saul langs to be free, John,
And angels beckon me

To the land o' the leal.

Oh! haud ye leal and true, John!
Your day it's wearin' through, John,
And I'll welcome you

To the land o' the leal.

Now fare-ye-weel, my ain John,
This warld's cares are vain, John,
We 'll meet, and we 'll be fain,

In the land o' the leal.

Carolina, Lady Nairne.

A DOUBTING HEART

WHERE are the swallows fled?

Frozen and dead,

Perchance upon some bleak and stormy

shore.

O doubting heart!

Far over purple seas,

They wait, in sunny ease,

The balmy southern breeze,

To bring them to their northern homes

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once more.

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A Doubting Heart

Why must the flowers die?

Prison'd they lie

In the cold tomb, heedless of tears or rain.

O doubting heart!

They only sleep below

The soft white ermine snow,

While winter winds shall blow,

To breathe and smile upon you soon

again.

The sun has hid its rays

These many days;

Will dreary hours never leave the earth?

O doubting heart!

The stormy clouds on high

Veil the same sunny sky,

That soon (for spring is nigh)

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Shall wake the summer into golden mirth. 24

Fair hope is dead, and light

Is quench'd in night.

What sound can break the silence of despair?

O doubting heart!

Thy sky is overcast,

Yet stars shall rise at last,

Brighter for the darkness past,

And angels' silver voices stir the air.

1858.

Adelaide Anne Proctor.

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THE PILGRIMAGE

GIVE me my scallop-shell of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation,

My gown of glory, hope's true gauge;
And thus I'll take my pilgrimage.

Blood must be my body's balmer;
No other balm will there be given;
Whilst my soul, like quiet palmer,
Travelleth towards the land of Heaven;
Over the silver mountains,

Where spring the nectar fountains:

There will I kiss

The bowl of bliss;

And drink mine everlasting fill
Upon every milken hill.

My soul will be a-dry before;
But after, it will thirst no more.

Then by that happy blissful day,
More peaceful pilgrims I shall see,
That have cast off their rags of clay,
And walk apparelled fresh like me.
I'll take them first

To quench their thirst

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The Prilgrimage

And taste of nectar's suckets,

At those clear wells

Where sweetness dwells,

Drawn up by saints in crystal buckets.

And when our bottles and all we
Are filled with immortality,

Then the blessed paths we 'll travel,
Strewed with rubies thick as gravel;
Ceilings of diamonds, sapphire floors,
High walls of coral and pearly bowers.
From thence to Heaven's bribeless hall,
Where no corrupted voices brawl;
No conscience molten into gold,
No forged accuser bought or sold,

No cause deferred, no vain-spent journey,
For there Christ is the King's Attorney,
Who pleads for all without degrees,
And He hath angels, but no fees.

And when the grand twelve-million jury
Of our sins, with direful fury,

'Gainst our souls black verdicts give,
Christ pleads His death, and then we live
Be Thou my speaker, taintless pleader,
Unblotted lawyer, true proceeder!
Thou giv'st salvation even for alms;
Not with a bribed lawyer's palms.
And this is mine eternal plea

To Him that made heaven, earth, and sea,
That, since my flesh must die so soon,
And want a head to dine next noon,

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Just at the stroke, when my veins start and spread,

Set on my soul an everlasting head!

Then am I ready, like a palmer fit,

To tread those blest paths which before

I writ.

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Of death and judgment, heaven and hell, Who oft doth think, must needs die well. 1603? Sir Walter Raleigh.

A BALLAD OF TREES AND THE

MASTER

INTO the woods my Master went,

Clean forspent, forspent.

Into the woods my Master came,

Forspent with love and shame.

But the olives they were not blind to Him;
The little gray leaves were kind to Him;
The thorn-tree had a mind to Him

When into the woods He came.

Out of the woods my Master went,

And He was well content.

Out of woods my Master came,
Content with death and shame.

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