The Poetical Works of George MacDonald Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 Excerpt: ...of God lay warm on hill and plain: Tis well to die in summer. When the breath, After a hopeless pause, returned no more, The father fell upon his knees, and said: "O God, I thank thee; it is over now Through the sore time thy hand has led him well. Lord, let me follow soon, and be at rest" Therewith he rose, and comforted the maid, Who in her brother had lost the pride of life, And wept as all her heaven were only rain. Of the loved lady, little more I know. I know not if, when she had read his words, She rose in haste, and to her chamber went, And shut the door; nor if, when she came forth, A dawn of holier purpose gleamed across The sadness of her brow. But this I know, That, on a warm autumnal afternoon, When headstone-shadows crossed three neighbour graves, And, like an ended prayer, the empty church Stood in the sunshine, or a cenotaph, A little boy, who watched a cow near by Gather her milk where alms of clover-fields Lay scattered on the sides of silent roads, All sudden saw, nor knew whence she had come, A lady, veiled, alone, and very still, Seated upon a grave. Long time she sat And moved not, weeping sore, the watcher said--Though how he knew she wept, were hard to tell. At length, slow-leaning on her elbow down, She hid her face a while in the short grass, And pulled a something small from off the mound--A blade of grass it must have been, he thought, For nothing else was there, not even a daisy--And put it in a letter. Then she rose, And glided silent forth, over the wall, Where the two steps on this side and on that Shorten the path from westward to the church.--The clang of hoofs and sound of light, swift wheels Arose and died upon the listener's ear. k TO THEM THAT MOURN. Let your tears flow; let your sad sighs have scope Only tak...