Complete Works of Harriet Beecher Stowe

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

  Breathe o’er the child foreshadowing words of joy,

  High triumph blent with bitter agony!

  O, highly favored thou in many an hour

  Spent in lone musings with thy wondrous Son,

  When thou didst gaze into that glorious eye,

  And hold that mighty hand within thine own.

  Blest through those thirty years, when in thy dwelling

  He lived a God disguised with unknown power;

  And thou his sole adorer, his best love,

  Trusting, revering, waited for his hour.

  Blest in that hour, when called by opening heaven

  With cloud and voice, and the baptizing flame,

  Up from the Jordan walked th’ acknowledged stranger,

  And awe-struck crowds grew silent as he came.

  Blessed, when full of grace, with glory crowned,

  He from both hands almighty favors poured,

  And, though He had not where to lay his head,

  Brought to his feet alike the slave and lord.

  Crowds followed; thousands shouted, “Lo, our King!”

  Fast beat thy heart. Now, now the hour draws nigh:

  Behold the crown, the throne, the nations bend!

  Ah, no! fond mother, no! behold him die!

  Now by that cross thou tak’st thy final station,

  And shar’st the last dark trial of thy Son;

  Not with weak tears or woman’s lamentation,

  But with high, silent anguish, like his own.

  Hail! highly favored, even in this deep passion;

  Hail! in this bitter anguish thou art blest, —

  Blest in the holy power with Him to suffer

  Those deep death-pangs that lead to higher rest.

  All now is darkness; and in that deep stillness

  The God-man wrestles with that mighty woe;

  Hark to that cry, the rock of ages rending, —

  “‘T is finished!” Mother, all is glory now!

  By sufferings mighty as his mighty soul

  Hath the Redeemer risen forever blest;

  And through all ages must his heart-beloved

  Through the same baptism enter the same rest.

  THE INNER VOICE.

  “Come ye yourselves into a desert place and rest awhile; for there were many coming and going, so that they had no time so much as to eat.”

  ‘MID the mad whirl of life, its dim confusion,

  Its jarring discords and poor vanity,

  Breathing like music over troubled waters,

  What gentle voice, O Christian, speaks to thee?

  It is a stranger, — not of earth or earthly;

  By the serene, deep fulness of that eye, —

  By the calm, pitying smile, the gesture lowly, —

  It is thy Saviour as he passeth by.

  “Come, come,” he saith, “O soul oppressed and weary,

  Come to the shadows of my desert rest,

  Come walk with me far from life’s babbling discords,

  And peace shall breathe like music in thy breast.

  “Art thou bewildered by contesting voices, —

  Sick to thy soul of party noise and strife?

  Come, leave it all, and seek that solitude

  Where thou shalt learn of me a purer life.

  “When far behind the world’s great tumult dieth,

  Thou shalt look back and wonder at its roar;

  But its far voice shall seem to thee a dream,

  Its power to vex thy holier life be o’er.

  “There shalt thou learn the secret of a power,

  Mine to bestow, which heals the ills of living;

  To overcome by love, to live by prayer,

  To conquer man’s worst evils by forgiving.”

  ABIDE IN ME, AND I IN YOU.

  THE SOUL’S ANSWER.

  THAT mystic word of thine, O sovereign Lord,

  Is all too pure, too high, too deep for me;

  Weary of striving, and with longing faint,

  I breathe it back again in prayer to thee.

  Abide in me, I pray, and I in thee;

  From this good hour, O, leave me nevermore;

  Then shall the discord cease, the wound be healed,

  The lifelong bleeding of the soul be o’er.

  Abide in me; o’ershadow by thy love

  Each half-formed purpose and dark thought of

  Quench, e’er it rise, each selfish, low desire,

  And keep my soul as thine, calm and divine.

  As some rare perfume in a vase of clay

  Pervades it with a fragrance not its own,

  So, when thou dwellest in a mortal soul,

  All heaven’s own sweetness seems around it thrown.

  Abide in me: there have been moments blest

  When I have heard thy voice and felt thy power;

  Then evil lost its grasp, and passion, hushed,

  Owned the divine enchantment of the hour.

  These were but seasons, beautiful and rare;

  Abide in me, and they shall ever be.

  Fulfil at once thy precept and my prayer, —

  Come, and abide in me, and I in thee.

  THE SECRET.

  “Thou shalt keep them in the secret of thy presence from the strife of tongues.”

  WHEN winds are raging o’er the upper ocean,

  And billows wild contend with angry roar,

  ‘T is said, far down beneath the wild commotion,

  That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore.

  Far, far beneath, the noise of tempest dieth,

  And silver waves chime ever peacefully;

  And no rude storm, how fierce soe’er he flieth,

  Disturbs the sabbath of that deeper sea.

  So to the soul that knows thy love, O Purest,

  There is a temple peaceful evermore!

  And all the babble of life’s angry voices

  Die in hushed stillness at its sacred door.

  Far, far away the noise of passion dieth,

  And loving thoughts rise ever peacefully;

  And no rude storm, how fierce soe’er he flieth,

  Disturbs that deeper rest, O Lord, in thee.

  O rest of rests! O peace serene, eternal!

  Thou ever livest and thou changest never;

  And in the secret of thy presence dwelleth

  Fulness of joy, forever and forever.

  THINK NOT ALL IS OVER.

  THINK not, when the wailing winds of autumn

  Drive the shivering leaflets from the tree, —

  Think not all is over: spring returneth,

  Buds and leaves and blossoms thou shalt see.

  Think not, when the earth lies cold and sealed,

  And the weary birds above her mourn, —

  Think not all is over: God still liveth,

  Songs and sunshine shall again return.

  Think not, when thy heart is waste and dreary,

  When thy cherished hopes lie chill and sere, —

  Think not all is over: God still loveth,

  He will wipe away thy every tear.

  Weeping for a night alone endureth,

  God at last shall bring a morning hour;

  In the frozen buds of every winter

  Sleep the blossoms of a future flower.

  LINES TO THE MEMORY OF “ANNIE,” WHO DIED AT MILAN, JUNE 6, 1860.

  “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom Seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him.” — John xx. 15.

  IN the fair gardens of celestial peace

  Walketh a Gardener in meekness clad;

  Fair are the flowers that wreathe his dewy locks,

  And his mysterious eyes are sweet and sad.

  Fair are the silent foldings of his robes,

  Falling with saintly calmness to his feet;

  And when he walks, each floweret to his will
<
br />   With living pulse of sweet accord doth beat.

  Every green leaf thrills to its tender heart,

  In the mild summer radiance of his eye;

  No fear of storm, or cold, or bitter frost,

  Shadows the flowerets when their sun is nigh.

  And all our pleasant haunts of earthly love

  Are nurseries to those gardens of the air;

  And his far-darting eye, with starry beam,

  Watcheth the growing of his treasures there.

  We call them ours, o’erwept with selfish tears,

  O’erwatched with restless longings night and day;

  Forgetful of the high, mysterious right

  He holds to bear our cherished plants away.

  But when some sunny spot in those bright fields

  Needs the fair presence of an added flower,

  Down sweeps a starry angel in the night:

  At morn, the rose has vanished from our bower.

  Where stood our tree, our flower, there is a grave!

  Blank, silent, vacant, but in worlds above,

  Like a new star outblossomed in the skies,

  The angels hail an added flower of love.

  Dear friend, no more upon that lonely mound,

  Strewed with the red and yellow autumn leaf,

  Drop thou the tear, but raise the fainting eye

  Beyond the autumn mists of earthly grief.

  Thy garden rose-bud bore, within its breast,

  Those mysteries of color, warm and bright,

  That the bleak climate of this lower sphere

  Could never waken into form and light.

  Yes, the sweet Gardener hath borne her hence,

  Nor must thou ask to take her thence away;

  Thou shalt behold her in some coming hour,

  Full-blossomed in his fields of cloudless day.

  THE CROCUS.

  BENEATH the sunny autumn sky,

  With gold leaves dropping round,

  We sought, my little friend and I,

  The consecrated ground,

  Where, calm beneath the holy cross,

  O’ershadowed by sweet skies,

  Sleeps tranquilly that youthful form,

  Those blue unclouded eyes.

  Around the soft, green swelling mound

  We scooped the earth away,

  And buried deep the crocus-bulbs

  Against a coming day.

  “These roots are dry, and brown, and sere;

  Why plant them here?” he said,

  “To leave them, all the winter long,

  So desolate and dead.”

  “Dear child, within each sere dead form

  There sleeps a living flower,

  And angel-like it shall arise

  In spring’s returning hour.”

  Ah, deeper down — cold, dark, and chill —

  We buried our heart’s flower,

  But angel-like shall he arise

  In spring’s immortal hour.

  In blue and yellow from its grave

  Springs up the crocus fair,

  And God shall raise those bright blue eyes,

  Those sunny waves of hair.

  Not for a fading summer’s morn,

  Not for a fleeting hour,

  But for an endless age of bliss,

  Shall rise our heart’s dear flower.

  CONSOLATION.

  WRITTEN AFTER THE SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN.

  “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”

  AH, many-voiced and angry! how the waves

  Beat turbulent with terrible uproar!

  Is there no rest from tossing, — no repose?

  Where shall we find a haven and a shore?

  What is secure from the loud-dashing wave?

  There go our riches, and our hopes fly there;

  There go the faces of our best beloved,

  Whelmed in the vortex of its wild despair.

  Whose son is safe? whose brother, and whose home?

  The dashing spray beats out the household fire;

  By blackened ashes weep our widowed souls

  Over the embers of our lost desire.

  By pauses, in the fitful moaning storm,

  We hear triumphant notes of battle roll.

  Too soon the triumph sinks in funeral wail;

  The muffled drum, the death march, shakes the soul!

  Rocks on all sides, and breakers! at the helm

  Weak human hand and weary human eyes.

  The shout and clamor of our dreary strife

  Goes up conflicting to the angry skies.

  But for all this, O timid hearts, be strong;

  Be of good cheer, for, though the storm must be,

  It hath its Master: from the depths shall rise

  New heavens, new earth, where shall be no more sea.

  No sea, no tossing, no unrestful storm!

  Forever past the anguish and the strife;

  The poor old weary earth shall bloom again,

  With the bright foliage of that better life.

  And war, and strife, and hatred, shall be past,

  And misery be a forgotten dream.

  The Shepherd God shall lead his peaceful fold

  By the calm meadows and the quiet stream.

  Be still, be still, and know that he is God;

  Be calm, be trustful; work, and watch, and pray,

  Till from the throes of this last anguish rise

  The light and gladness of that better day.

  ONLY A YEAR.

  ONE year ago, — a ringing voice,

  A clear blue eye,

  And clustering curls of sunny hair,

  Too fair to die.

  Only a year, — no voice, no smile,

  No glance of eye,

  No clustering curls of golden hair,

  Fair but to die!

  One year ago, — what loves, what schemes

  Far into life!

  What joyous hopes, what high resolves,

  What generous strife!

  The silent picture on the wall,

  The burial stone,

  Of all that beauty, life, and joy

  Remain alone!

  One year, — one year, — one little year,

  And so much gone!

  And yet the even flow of life

  Moves calmly on.

  The grave grows green, the flowers bloom fair,

  Above that head;

  No sorrowing tint of leaf or spray

  Says he is dead.

  No pause or hush of merry birds,

  That sing above,

  Tells us how coldly sleeps below

  The form we love.

  Where hast thou been this year, beloved?

  What hast thou seen?

  What visions fair, what glorious life,

  Where thou hast been?

  The veil! the veil! so thin, so strong!

  ‘Twixt us and thee;

  The mystic veil! when shall it fall,

  That we may see?

  Not dead, not sleeping, not even gone,

  But present still,

  And waiting for the coming hour

  Of God’s sweet will.

  Lord of the living and the dead,

  Our Saviour dear!

  We lay in silence at thy feet

  This sad, sad year!

  BELOW.

  LOUDLY sweep the winds of autumn

  O’er that lone, beloved grave,

  Where we laid those sunny ringlets,

  When those blue eyes set like stars,

  Leaving us to outer darkness.

  O the longing and the aching!

  O the sere deserted grave!

  Let the grass turn brown upon thee,

  Brown and withered like our dreams!

  Let the wind moan through the pine-trees

  With a dreary, dirge-like whistle,

  Sweep th
e dead leaves on its bosom, —

  Moaning, sobbing through the branches,

  Where the summer laughed so gayly.

  He is gone, our boy of summer, —

  Gone the light of his blue eyes,

  Gone the tender heart and manly,

  Gone the dreams and the aspirings, —

  Nothing but the mound remaineth,

  And the aching in our bosoms,

  Ever aching, ever throbbing:

  Who shall bring it unto rest?

  ABOVE.

  A VISION.

  COMING down a golden street

  I beheld my vanished one,

  And he moveth on a cloud,

  And his forehead wears a star;

  And his blue eyes, deep and holy,

  Fixed as in a blessed dream,

  See some mystery of joy,

  Some unuttered depth of love.

  And his vesture is as blue

  As the skies of summer are,

  Falling with a saintly sweep,

  With a sacred stillness swaying;

  And he presseth to his bosom

  Harp of strange and mystic fashion,

  And his hands, like living pearls,

  Wander o’er the golden strings.

  And the music that ariseth,

  Who can utter or divine it?

  In that strange celestial thrilling,

  Every memory of sorrow,

  Every heart-ache, every anguish,

  Every fear for the to-morrow,

  Melt away in charméd rest.

  And there be around him many,

  Bright with robes like evening clouds, —

  Tender green and clearest amber,

  Crimson fading into rose,

  Robes of flames and robes of silver, —

  And their hues all thrill and tremble

  With a living light of feeling,

  Deepening with each heart’s pulsation,

  Till in vivid trance of color

  That celestial rainbow glows.

  How they float and wreathe and brighten,

  Bending low their starry brows,

  Singing with a tender cadence,

  And their hands, like spotless lilies,

  Folded on their prayerful breasts.

  In their singing seem to mingle

  Tender airs of by-gone days; —

  Mother-hymnings by the cradle,

  Mother-moanings by the grave,

  Songs of human love and sorrow,

  Songs of endless love and rest; —

  In the pauses of that music

  Every throb of sorrow dies.

  O my own, my heart’s belove’d,

  Vainly have I wept above thee?