It shone upon a genial mind, A monitory flame: The thought was small; its issue great; A watch-fire on the hill, It sheds its radiance far adown, A nameless man, amid the crowd It raised a brother from the dust, But mighty at the last. Charles Mackay [1814-1889] THE SIN OF OMISSION It isn't the thing you do, dear; The letter you did not write, The flower you might have sent, dear, The stone you might have lifted Out of a brother's way, The bit of heartsome counsel You were hurried too much to say; The loving touch of the hand, dear, The gentle and winsome tone, That you had no time nor thought for, The little acts of kindness, So easily out of mind; Those chances to be angels Which every one may findThey come in night and silence— Each chill, reproachful wraith— When hope is faint and flagging And a blight has dropped on faith. For life is all too short, dear, It's the thing you leave undone, Margaret Sangster [1838 THE FLOWER ONCE in a golden hour Up there came a flower, To and fro they went Through my garden-bower, Then it grew so tall It wore a crown of light, Stole the seed by night; Sowed it far and wide By every town and tower, Read my little fable: He that runs may read. And some are pretty enough, Alfred Tennyson [1809-1892] STANZAS OFTEN rebuked, yet always back returning To-day, I will seek not the shadowy region; And visions rising, legion after legion, Bring the unreal world too strangely near. I'll walk, but not in old heroic traces, And not among the half-distinguished faces, I'll walk where my own nature would be leading: Where the gray flocks in ferny glens are feeding; What have those lonely mountains worth revealing? Can center both the worlds of Heaven and Hell. THE LESSON OF THE WATER-MILL LISTEN to the Water-Mill; From the field the reapers sing, And a proverb haunts my mind "The mill cannot grind With the water that is past." Autumn winds revive no more Flows the ruffled streamlet on, Tranquil, deep, and still, Never gliding back again To the water-mill; Truly speaks the proverb old, With a meaning vast, "The mill cannot grind With the water that is past." Take the lesson to thyself True and loving heart; Golden youth is fleeting by, Summer hours depart; Learn to make the most of life, Lose no happy day, Time will never bring thee back Chances swept away! Leave no tender word unsaid, Love while love shall last; "The mill cannot grind Work while yet the daylight shines, Man of strength and will! Never does the streamlet glide Useless by the mill; Wait not till to-morrow's sun Beams upon thy way, All that thou canst call thine own Lies in thy "to-day"; Power and intellect and health May not always last, "The mill cannot grind With the water that is past." O the wasted hours of life That have drifted by! O the good that might have been, Lost, without a sigh! Love, that we might once have saved By a single word, Thoughts conceived, but never penned, Perishing unheard;— Take the proverb to thine heart, Take, and hold it fast, "The mill cannot grind With the water that is past." Sarah Doudney [1843 LIFE I MADE a posy, while the day ran by: Here will I smell my remnant out, and tie My life within this band. But Time did beckon to the flowers, and they By noon most cunningly did steal away, And withered in my hand. My hand was next to them, and then my heart; Time's gentle admonition; |