WAITING

BY JOHN BURROUGHS

Serene, I fold my hands and wait,

Nor care for wind, or tide, or sea;
I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,
For, lo! my own shall come to me.

I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways,
And what is mine shall know my face.

Asleep, awake, by night or day,

The friends I seek are seeking me; No wind can drive my bark astray, Nor change the tide of destiny.

What matter if I stand alone?

I wait with joy the coming years; My heart shall reap where it has sown, And garner up its fruit of tears.

The waters know their own and draw

The brook that springs in yonder height;

So flows the good with equal law

Unto the soul of pure delight.

The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea;

Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me.

ENVOY

BY BLISS CARMAN

Have little care that Life is brief,
And less that Art is long.

Success is in the silences

Though Fame is in the song.

ON HIS BLINDNESS

BY JOHN MILTON

When I consider how my light is spent,

E're half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one Talent which is death to hide, Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, least he returning chide, Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd, I fondly ask; But patience to prevent That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts, who best

Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed And post o're Land and Ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and waite.

WORK

BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

What are we set on earth for? Say, to toil;
Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines.
For all the heat o' the day, till it declines,
And Death's mild curfew shall from work assoil.
God did anoint thee with His odorous oil,
To wrestle, not to reign; and He assigns
All thy tears over, like pure crystallines,
For younger fellow-workers of the soil
To wear for amulets. So others shall

Take patience, labour, to their heart and hand, From thy hand and thy heart and thy brave cheer, And God's grace fructify through thee to all. The least flower with a brimming cup may stand, And share its dew-drop with another near.

A TREASURE HOUSE

BY M. A. DEWOLFE HOWE

The poet's song, the painter's art,
Are richest when they tell but part;

We hear the sweetest player, and thrill
With dreams of music sweeter still;

The spring's first brightness is so dear
Because we feel the summer near:-

Shall I not love my love the more
For keeping wealths of love in store?

FOUND ON AN ENGLISH SUN DIAL (From the Latin)

Time flies,

Suns rise

And shadows fall.

Let time go by.

Love is forever over all.

THE ARROW AND THE SONG

BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

I shot an arrow into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

From THE WORD AT ST. KAVIN'S

BY BLISS CARMAN

Therefore, my friends, I say

Back to the fair sweet way

Our Mother Nature taught us long ago,-
The large primeval mood,

Leisure and amplitude,

The dignity of patience strong and slow.

Let us go in once more

By some blue mountain door,

And hold communion with the forest leaves;

Where long ago we trod

The Ghost House of the God,

Through orange dawns and amethystine eves!

THE RECOMPENSE1

BY ANNA WICKHAM

Of every step I took in pain

I had some gain.

Of every night of blind excess

I had reward of half-dead idleness.

Back to the lone road

With the old load!

But rest at night is sweet

To wounded feet.

And when the day is long,

There is miraculous reward of song.

1 From "The Contemplative Quarry" by Anna Wickham, copyright, 1921, by Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc.