The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes - Volume 1, George MacDonald [universal ebook reader txt] 📗

I stained
Beyond release?

Julian .
Lilia, thy purity
Maketh thy heart abuse thee. I, thy husband,
Sinned more against thee, in believing ill,
Than thou, by ten times what thou didst, poor child,
Hadst wronged thy husband.

Lilia .
Pardon will not do:
I need much more, O Master. That word go
Surely thou didst not speak to send away
The sinful wife thou wouldst not yet condemn!
Or was that crime, though not too great for pardon,
Too great for loving-kindness afterward?
Might she not too have come behind thy feet,
And, weeping, wiped and kissed them, Mary's son,
Blessed for ever with a heavenly grief?
Ah! she nor I can claim with her who gave
Her tears, her hair, her lips, her precious oil,
To soothe feet worn with Galilean roads:-
She sinned against herself, not against-Julian.

My Lord, my God, find some excuse for me.
Find in thy heart something to say for me,
As for the crowd that cried against thee, then,
When heaven was dark because thy lamp burned low.

Julian .
Not thou, but I am guilty, Lilia.
I made it possible to tempt thee, child.
Thou didst not fall, my love; only, one moment,
Beauty was queen, and Truth not lord of all.

Lilia .
O Julian, my husband, is it strange,
That, when I think of Him, he looks like thee?
That, when he speaks to comfort me, the voice
Is like thy voice, my husband, my beloved?
Oh! if I could but lie down at thy feet,
And tell thee all-yea, every thought-I know
That thou wouldst think the best that could be thought,
And love and comfort me. O Julian,
I am more thine than ever.-Forgive me, husband,
For calling me, defiled and outcast, thine.
Yet may I not be thine as I am His?
Would I might be thy servant-yes, thy slave,
To wash thy feet, and dress thy lovely child,
And bring her at thy call-more wife than I.
But I shall never see thee, till the earth
Lies on us both-apart-oh, far apart!
How lonely shall I lie the long, long years!

Lily .
O mother, there are blue skies here, and flowers,
And blowing winds, and kisses, mother dear!
And every time my father kisses me,
It is not father only, but another.
Make haste and come. My head never aches here.

Lilia .
Can it be that they are dead? Is it possible?
I feel as if they were near me!-Speak again,
Beloved voices; comfort me; I need it.

Julian (singing ).

Come to us: above the storm
Ever shines the blue.
Come to us: beyond its form
Ever lies the True.


Lily (singing ).

Mother, darling, do not weep-
All I cannot tell:
By and by you'll go to sleep,
And you'll wake so well.

Julian (singing ).

There is sunshine everywhere
For thy heart and mine:
God, for every sin and care,
Is the cure divine.

Lily (singing ).

We're so happy all the day,
Waiting for another!
All the flowers and sunshine stay,
Watching for my mother.


Julian .
My maiden! for true wife is always maiden
To the true husband: thou art mine for ever.

Lilia .
What gentle hopes keep passing to and fro!
Thou shadowest me with thine own rest, my God;
A cloud from thee stoops down and covers me.

[ She falls asleep on her knees ]


SCENE III.-JULIAN on the summit of a mountain-peak. The stars are brilliant around a crescent moon, hanging half-way between the mountain and the zenith. Below lies a sea of vapour. Beyond rises a loftier pinnacle, across which is stretched a bar of cloud . LILY
lies on the cloud, looking earnestly into the mist below .

Julian (gazing upward ).
And thou wast with me all the time, my God,
Even as now! I was not far from thee.
Thy spirit spoke in all my wants and fears,
And hopes and longings. Thou art all in all.
I am not mine, but thine. I cannot speak
The thoughts that work within me like a sea.
When on the earth I lay, crushed down beneath
A hopeless weight of empty desolation,
Thy loving face was lighted then, O Christ,
With expectation of my joy to come,
When all the realm of possible ill should lie
Under my feet, and I should stand as now
Heart-sure of thee, true-hearted, only One.
Was ever soul filled to such overflowing
With the pure wine of blessedness, my God!
Filled as the night with stars, am I with joys;
Filled as the heavens with thee, am I with peace;
For now I wait the end of all my prayers-
Of all that have to do with old-world things:
What new things come to wake new prayers, my God,
Thou know'st; I wait on thee in perfect peace.

[ He turns his gaze downward.-From the fog-sea
below half-rises a woman-form, which floats toward him. ]

Lo, as the lily lifts its shining bosom
From the lone couch of waters where it slept,
When the fair morn toucheth and waketh it;
So riseth up my lily from the deep
Where human souls are vexed in awful dreams!

[LILY spies her mother, darts down, and is caught in
her arms. They land on JULIAN'S peak, and
climb , LILY leading her mother .]

Lily .
Come faster, mother dear; father is waiting.

Lilia .
Have patience with me, darling. By and by,
I think, I shall do better.-Oh my Julian!

Julian .
I may not help her. She must climb and come.

[ He reaches his hand, and the three are clasped in
an infinite embrace .]

O God, thy thoughts, thy ways, are not as ours:
They fill our longing hearts up to the brim.

[ The moon and the stars and the blue night close
around them; and the poet awakes from his dream .]


A HIDDEN LIFE.


TO MY FATHER:
with my second volume of verse .


I.

Take of the first fruits, father, of thy care,
Wrapped in the fresh leaves of my gratitude,
Late waked for early gifts ill understood;
Claiming in all my harvests rightful share,
Whether with song that mounts the joyful air
I praise my God, or, in yet deeper mood,
Sit dumb because I know a speechless good,
Needing no voice, but all the soul for prayer.
Thou hast been faithful to my highest need;
And I, thy debtor, ever, evermore,
Shall never feel the grateful burden sore.
Yet most I thank thee, not for any deed,
But for the sense thy living self did breed
Of fatherhood still at the great world's core.


II.

All childhood, reverence clothed thee, undefined,
As for some being of another race;
Ah, not with it, departing-growing apace
As years did bring me manhood's loftier mind,
Able to see thy human life behind-
The same hid heart, the same revealing face-
My own dim contest settling into grace,
Of sorrow, strife, and victory combined!
So I beheld my God, in childhood's morn,
A mist, a darkness, great, and far apart,
Moveless and dim-I scarce could say Thou art :
My manhood came, of joy and sadness born;-
Full soon the misty dark, asunder torn,
Revealed man's glory, God's great human heart.

G.M.D. jr.

ALGIERS, April, 1857 .


A HIDDEN LIFE.

Proudly the youth, sudden with manhood crowned,
Went walking by his horses, the first time,
That morning, to the plough. No soldier gay
Feels at his side the throb of the gold hilt
(Knowing the blue blade hides within its sheath,
As lightning in the cloud) with more delight,
When first he belts it on, than he that day
Heard still the clank of the plough-chains against
His horses' harnessed sides, as to the field
They went to make it fruitful. O'er the hill
The sun looked down, baptizing him for toil.

A farmer's son, a farmer's grandson he;
Yea, his great-grandsire had possessed those fields.
Tradition said they had been tilled by men
Who bore the name long centuries ago,
And married wives, and reared a stalwart race,
And died, and went where all had followed them,
Save one old man, his daughter, and the youth
Who ploughs in pride, nor ever doubts his toil;
And death is far from him this sunny morn.
Why should we think of death when life is high?
The earth laughs all the day, and sleeps all night.
The daylight's labour and the night's repose
Are very good, each better in its time.

The boy knew little; but he read old tales
Of Scotland's warriors, till his blood ran swift
As