Ethel Lynn Beers

“ Will I find that new to-morrow
⁠Like this vanished day at all?
Will the love I covet meet me?
⁠Will the health I boast be mine?
And the golden sun in heaven
⁠Gladden eyes that love its shine? ”

“ Its sinless love and sands of gold.
Tell me what lies beyond the blue,
And what the whirling star-worlds do?
⁠Is there no jasper wall in sight,
⁠Whose turrets catch thy silver light,
With gates where weary souls go through? ”

“ And blinked, through a flaw in the midst, at the
⁠moon,
⁠Slyly once or twice:
"You may chain me under and keep me fast,
But you ll hear a song as I hurry past
⁠Underneath the ice."
There are hidden lives in this world unseen;
You may never see through their polished sheen,
⁠Nor their fetters know ”

“ An eye—a soul—or ill or good;
⁠Demon, or angel mystery.
Mentor or siren, friend or foe,
⁠The wily tongue may weave its spell;
But there outlooking stands the soul,
⁠A steadfast tale of truth to tell. ”

“ With battling hand and restless foot,
⁠And ear like midge's wing.
We'll give her chrism sweet and small,
⁠A word that's soft and low,
A sound to hear from lips of love
⁠As days of earth-life go. ”

“ O human soul so near me,
⁠Still with thy visor barred,
When shall I know thee truly,
⁠Without thy starry guard?—
Never to read thee better,
⁠Never to read aright,
Till blots and blanks and errors
⁠The world beyond makes right? ”

“ And shivers as the harvest-moon
⁠The first sad cycle closes.
A year-old sorrow! Still it lives,
⁠Moaning at midnight waking;
It wanders through the twilight gloom,
⁠And weeps with daylight breaking. ”

“ Fair sunshiny days
⁠That bring heaven nearer.
⁠Glad days full of brightness,
When faces look kindly,
When friends love us blindly,
And the sunshine above us
Itself seems to love us,
⁠And clothes us in whiteness. ”

“ Saw my hostess, clad in garments
⁠Such as earth could never spin,
Full of wonder as an angel
⁠Held a starry circlet out,
Pointing to the jewels shining
⁠All the golden crown about:
" Not so many stars, O angel! ”

“ Then the good deeds, counted giants
⁠In the sunshine's golden gleam,
Underneath the starry zenith
⁠Only shrunken pigmies seem.
Oh, the blessed, silent midnight!
⁠When the smoke of battle, blown
Aside a moment, shows us angels
⁠Nearest when we seem alone. ”

“ The jewel that burns, as the humming-bird turns,
⁠His hand from the rainbow has blended.
"You work all the day—'tis a honey-bee's way;
⁠The Lord made you homely and busy;
What use would it be for a creature like me
⁠To be grumbling, and work myself dizzy? ”

“ Mary, good-bye!"
⁠The red life-blood is ebbing and plashing.
All quiet along the Potomac to-night,
⁠No sound save the rush of the river;
While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead—
⁠The picket's off duty for ever! ”

“ Though remorse sits close beside it,
⁠And the heart repentant breaks.
Serve and wait, for when beyond us
⁠Lives float off to yonder shore,
Never word or loving service
⁠Can we render evermore. ”

“ So a wreath better winning
⁠Than laurel and bay
Seems the cap of the soldier,
⁠Marked "Company K."
For eyes have looked steady
⁠Its visor beneath
O'er the work of the reaper,
⁠Whose harvest is Death. ”

“ When loit'ring lovers homeward went
⁠Through leaves about me dying.
And this is why to wintry winds
⁠I tell my thrice-told story:
Life, lonely life, when friends have gone,
⁠Is but a doubtful glory. ”

“ INTO OUR NEW HOME.
THE hurry of the moving is over,
And this is our bright new home,
Where never a sob has sounded,
Where never a sin has come.
We seem to be shorter people,
So missing our ceiling low ”

“ As another sigh on the silence broke.
"Not a bit of style—just her pa again;
He's a clumsy soul, though the best of men.
Straighter, Rosie! straight! hold your shoulders low!
Keep your toes turned out, and your head up—so!" ”

“ There rose a great, unequalled anthem
⁠Above the green camp-meeting tent.
And quite forgotten ere 'twas ended
⁠Were all the causes of complaint,
Till ugly Owl and sullen Raven
⁠Grew peaceful each as patient saint.
A happy thought for birds or people
⁠Who into hapless quarrels fall—
To leave them where they are, unsettled,
⁠And praise the Lord who governs all. ”

“ That clings about the haystack foot,
⁠Careless as guarded sparrow.
O peaceful hour of summer noon!
⁠Life has its midnight slumber;
Has it no noonday rest for us,
⁠When cares shall cease to cumber? ”

“ But ole darkey's happy here,
Where he's tended corn and cotton
For dese many a long-gone year.
Over yonder missis' sleeping—
No one tends her grave like me:
Mebbe she would miss the flowers
She used to love in Tennessee. ”

“ And were you lonely, dearest?
⁠"Nay; angels round me pressed,
And Christ, my Elder Brother,
⁠Carried me on His breast.
"And now I ve reached the country
⁠Where storms are all unknown;
The jasper walls are shadowless
⁠Around the shining throne. ”

“ Ah, more than yourself goeth yonder—
⁠Than the dream of a sweet summer lost—
Than the heart of a farmer-lad over
⁠The edge of that summer-time tossed.
You take the boy s trust in fair woman
⁠ (Save his mother, God bless her for aye!) ”

“ And her tears were thick on the tasselled corn,
On the spider's web and the sweet hawthorn.
Heavenward going, the ravished mist
Still wept as she vanished, and softly kissed
Each living thing on the valley-side,
With the last good-bye of the mountain-bride. ”

“ In the trench a ghastly vision
⁠Of his pallid face I see.
"Ah, when strangers buy a posy,
⁠Calling it meantime Too dear,
Do they guess the rose's dewdrop
⁠Is the while a woman's tear?
"Slowly, Franz! Why bound so wildly? ”

“ CALMER than midnight's deepest hush
⁠Is the sun-bright summer nooning,
With its cloudy shadows seeking rest,
⁠That fall on the hill-side swooning.
Great Night with its solemn starry eyes,
⁠Over Day's gate asks us whither
We go—what our password is
⁠To the camp beyond the river. ”

“ See cherry blooms shake softly over
⁠Silver hair and snowy cap?
Will the modern florist's triumph
⁠Look so fair, or smell so sweet,
As those dear old-fashioned posies
⁠Blooming round our grandame's feet? ”

“ There's a fire-proof safe
⁠None can mar or make,
Where we keep them close,
⁠For their own dear sake.
So the house may burn,
⁠And the chimney fall;
In our hearts they lie,
⁠Safe and guarded all. ”

“ Through the sickle sharp, through the pounding
⁠flail,
Cut and beaten down, rising crushed and pale—
Through the smirch of ink, through the tramp of lead,
Shalt thou speak to men when they deem thee dead. ”

“ Well, stranger, I'll tell you, though maybe you'll
⁠think
It ain't any reason at all.
There's plenty of hardship in pioneer-life—
⁠A hard-workin' stint, at the best—
But I'd stick to it yet if it wasn't for this,
⁠A heart like a log in my breast. ”

“ Artemisia, scorned in summer,
⁠With her quaint and thrifty ways,
Only she has not forsaken
⁠Through the dark November days.
⁠But to cheer me
⁠Still keeps near me,
⁠Cheerful in the white sun-rays. ”

“ WORLDLY WISDOM.
"OH, ma, it is dreadful!
I've quarrelled with John,
And left him for ever,
⁠To live all alone.
" He will not go with me
⁠To party or ball;
At home in the evening,
⁠He won't talk at all. ”

“ Bear to them our loving message,
In thy sweet unwritten speech;
Chime, white bells, above them softly,
Echoes only angels teach.
Tell them, Roses, as you wither,
Tho' their dust shall heed you not ”

“ We have musicians too all day,
⁠Whose flutes we did not bring;
An oriole trills all the while,
⁠And saucy robins sing;
While in the bush of evergreen
⁠A cat-bird, gray and shy,
A solo gives. Who pays the birds
⁠For all these songs ? ”

“ CHRISTMAS gifts for darling grandma—
⁠Loving counsel we must take,
What to buy to grace her Christmas,
⁠What to seek, or choose, or make.
She cares not for gold and silver,
⁠Nor the treasures they will buy ”

“ Poor Dick! bad Dick! our wayward son,
Turbulent, reckless, idle one—
Could he be spared? "Nay, He who gave,
Bids us befriend him to his grave;
Only a mother's heart can be
Patient enough for such as he ”

“ When she answered, speaking quickly,
⁠"'Tis women's work, this picking hops.
"Men should be where duty calls them—
⁠Women stay at home and pray
For the gallant absent soldier,
⁠Proud to know he would not stay." ”

“ As you slowly walk over the highway?"
⁠"Just seeking luck-clover," she said.
"Then what will you do with it, Jennie,
⁠When found, the small treasure you seek?"
"Ah, a clover, four-leaved, is so lucky
⁠To wear with a wish for a week." ”

“ Where toilworn hands fling back a bribe,
⁠Where honesty makes good its trust,
Where promises are kept through pain,
⁠Where still, tho tempted, men are just,—
There are life s soldiers brave and true ”

“ ALL QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC.
"ALL quiet along the Potomac," they say,
⁠"Except, now and then, a stray picket
Is shot, as he walks on his beat to and fro,
⁠By a rifleman hid in the thicket. ”

“ An' she wanted to show little Joe to the folks;
⁠She was hungry, I s'pose, for the sight
Of faces she'd seen all the days of her life:
⁠That was nat'ral, stranger, an' right.
But just when she thought to go over the Plains
⁠The devils of Sioux was about;
So poor Hetty waited a harvest or two,
⁠Through the summer of locusts and drought.
That left us poor people. The next coming spring
⁠Such a wearisome fever come round;
An', stranger—hold on till I tell you; there now!—
⁠It laid little Joe in the ground. ”

“ But they put up a weak little bit of a hand
In pursuit of a strap that they find is too high,
Settle down on their toes, and give up with a sigh.
Then they seem so unsteady, and waver about
When the cars with a jerk let a passenger out.
There's one getting in!—I won't look up at all,
But stare out of doors: she looks very small
Standing up in the crowd among those great men.
Her back is this way—I'll look once again.
'Tis a very nice back, and above and upon it,
With a curl peeping out, is a black velvet bonnet. ”

“ And soldiers whisper: "Boys, be still;
⁠There's some bad news from Granger's folks."
He turns his back (the only foe
⁠That ever saw it) on this grief,
And, as men will, keeps down the tears
⁠Kind Nature sends to Woe's relief. ”

“ That will never touch the floor;
Shoulder-ribbon softly twisted,
Apron folded, clean and white;
These are left me, and these only,
Of the childish presence bright.
Thus He sent an answer to my earnest praying,
Thus He keeps my darling free from earthly stain,
Thus He folds the pet lamb safe from earthly straying ”

“ All quiet along the Potomac to-night,
⁠Where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming; ”