LYRICS OF LIFE

EARTH'S MYSTERY

I looked on Sorrow, tragical and dread;
⁠Beheld the anguish in her sunken eyes,
⁠Which yearned no longer upward to the skies,—
As dumbly pleading to be comforted,—
But bent their blinded vision on the dead:
⁠The dead removed—how far!—from human sighs,
⁠Lying majestic, as a conqueror lies,
Indifferent to tears, so costly shed.

But as I pondered, seeking, soul-oppressed,
⁠To read the riddle of a world like this—
⁠⁠Where Nature still seems waiting to destroy,
⁠I saw immortal Love descend and kiss,
With timid wonder, reverent and blest,
⁠⁠The quivering eyelids and the lips of Joy!