Dora Sigerson Shorter

“ Laughing, running, tumbling, hard to keep from harm.
If some tender mother, whose babe on earth is living,
Takes his little hand to guide his stranger feet
'Mid the countless hosts that cross the floor of heaven,
Thou wilt not reprove her for Thy pity sweet. ”

“ Creak, creak, pipe, pipe, squeak, squeak, sweet!
They come with winter snow and sleet—
Creak, creak, pipe, pipe, squeak, squeak, sweet!
Oh, starling, starling, tell me true
Of pleasant lands that have sheltered you
Of running brook and woodland tree!
This is the tale he told to me:
Creak, creak, pipe, pipe, squeak, squeak, sweet!
Above the hum of busy street—
Creak, creak, pipe, pipe, squeak, squeak, sweet!
The starlings all will fly away,
With ice and snow on a sunshine day,
Starling, starling, do not go! ”

“ To draw their coach of sorrow from the door.
"My neighbour's child is but a maid like thee,"
The mother cried, and swiftly heart to heart
They clung, and wept together prayerfully,
Till each sad coach did from their gaze depart. ”

“ To call them home again.
I have three sorrows in my breast
To drown my heart in tears,
My Betty, Jock, and little Roy,
To shade my waning years.
My sunshine Bet, she made her choice—
A good man he, and true ”

“ Across the haunted bower;
"Too late! Too late!" the whisper came
From ev'ry sleeping flower.
I met a youth upon the path
And bade him tell to me
If he had seen the little maid
Who wept so dolefully. ”

“ Quoth John, "I'll ride on the gipsies' roac,
For narrow space and a small abode
Would break this vagrant heart in me,
And the world is wide and good to see."
"I'll stay," said James, "for my father's sake
From his ageing hand his toil to take,
So he have at last his heart's desire
To sit at ease by the glowing fire."
"I shall not work," said little Benjie,
"Nor roam the world that is fair to see ”

“ Burst Thou his strongholds and his ships entomb,
So I my vengeance take."
"Give to me rare beauty," said the young maid,
"More fair than all to be,
So I in silken raiment shall go forth
To draw men’s souls to me." ”

“ The withered leaves still cling
In their last desperate hold
And ceaseless murmuring.
They push the swinging branch
To beat upon the pane;
"Save us," they whispering cry—
“We shall not live again!" ”

“ The turret roof she reached—the wall—
No hiding there—no going back.
"Loud came the soldiers, but she prayed
No mercy from her fellows there;
Death was more kind—she stood and swayed
On the high wall above the glen. ”

“ WHEN I SHALL RISE
When I shall rise, and full of many fears,
Set forth upon my last long journey, lone,
And leave behind the circling earth to go
Amongst the countless stars to seek God's throne. ”

“ And then all fearless laughing sped
Through shadows strange and dim.
·⁠·⁠·⁠·⁠·When but a year had passed away
There came before his gate,
A dying man who "Succour," cried
"Before it be too late." ”