V.-THE MOURNERS CAME AT BREAK OF DAY. HE mourners came at break of day THE Unto the garden-sepulchre; With darkened hearts to weep and pray, What radiant light dispels the gloom? The earth doth mourn her treasures lost, The spring returns, the flowerets bloom- Then mourn we not beloved dead, E'en while we come to weep and pray; The happy spirit far hath fled To brighter realms of endless day: Immortal Hope dispels the gloom! VI.-O PLEASANT LIFE! (PARAPHRASED FROM THE SPANISH OF LUIS DE LEON. life! PLEASANThe soul can win her way From out the world's dark strife; And fly to depths fair-haunted By spirits who have panted To quit earth's shadows for immortal day O pleasant life! O happy breast! Nor care of courts, nor pride of birth, Can ruffle thy smooth rest; No scene of gilded riot Disturbs thy star-lit quiet Nor dims thy dream of heaven with mists of earth. O happy breast! O blessed soul! What care hast thou that flatt'ring fame Thy daily acts enroll? No breath of hers it tasketh, Thy life-long deed but asketh One smile of Truth to light thy passing name— VII.-PART IN PEACE! IS DAY BEFORE US? ART in peace! Is day before us? PART Praise His name for life and light; Part in peace! With deep thanksgiving, Tranquil memory to the dead. Part in peace! Such are the praises Richard Chenevix Trench. 1807-1886. THE poetry of Richard Chenevix Trench is represented, with that of the general poets of his time, in Vol. IV. of the POETS AND POETRY OF THE CENTURY, where particulars of his life and work in literature are given. Though scarcely claiming double representation, it is impossible, in view of the religious and didactic character of much of his verse, to omit him from a volume devoted to the sacred poetry of the period. Two or three examples of his more definitely religious verse are therefore added here. A firm faith in an all-wise, all-loving, over-ruling providence, and a sense of human unworthiness and weakness, in view of divine love and power, find tender expression in his religious verse, as the following nameless fragments will show :- I. Not Thou from us, O Lord, but we When we are dark and dead, But that we search and try What in ourselves has wrought this blame, II. If there had anywhere appeared in space For we against creation's bars had beat Like prisoned eagles, through great worlds had sought Though but a foot of ground to plant our feet, Where Thou wert not. And only when we found in earth and air, In heaven or hell, that such might nowhere be- III. Lord, many times I am aweary quite And hate against myself I often bear, And enter with myself in fierce debate: In that just hate. Best friends might loathe us, if what things perverse Aspiration after purer, truer life, through the tempered discipline of divine mercy, is beautifully expressed in the selections which follow. ALFRED H. MILES. POEMS. RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH. 1.- WHAT, MANY TIMES I MUSING ASKED. WHAT, HAT, many times I musing asked, is man, Keep far from him? he knows not what he can, He, till the fire had proved him, doth remain To lack the loving discipline of pain Yet when my Lord did ask me on what side The grief, whereby I must be purified, As each imagined anguish did appear, Before my soul, I cried, "Oh! spare me here, Like one that having need of, deep within, Would hardly bear that it should graze the skin, Till He at last, who best doth understand And what can bear, did take my case in hand, Nor crying heed. |