Steal from the meadows, rob the tall green hills,
Ravish my orchard's blossoms, let me bind
A crown of orchard flowers and daffodils,
Because my love is fair and white and kind.

To-day the thrush has trilled her daintiest phrases,
Flowers with their incense have made drunk the air,
God has bent down to gild the hearts of daisies,
Because my love is kind and white and fair.

To-day the sun has kissed the rose-tree's daughter,
And sad Narcissus, Spring's pale acolyte,
Hangs down his head and smiles into the water,
Because my love is kind and fair and white.

-1894-

Often the western wind has sung to me,
There have been voices in the streams and meres,
And pitiful trees have told me, God, of Thee:
And I heard not. Oh! open Thou mine ears.

The reeds have whispered low as I passed by,
“Be strong, O friend, be strong, put off vain fears,
Vex not thy soul with doubts, God cannot lie”:
And I heard not. Oh! open Thou mine ears.

There have been many stars to guide my feet,
Often the delicate moon, hearing my sighs,
Has rent the clouds and shown a silver street'
And I saw not. Oh! open Thou mine eyes.

Angels have beckoned me unceasingly,
And walked with me; and from the somber skies
Dear Christ Himself has stretched out hands to me;
And I saw not. Oh! open Thou mine eyes.

-1894-

See where she lies pale and serene and mild,
Our little Virgin meek and innocent,
The wistful oval of her face down-bent
Upon the wonder of her new-born child.
How frail the stable seems, how fierce and wild
(Outside the intangible angel circle) bent
In fearful hordes the infernal armament,
The dark battalions of the unreconciled!

I saw the vision of our House of Bread,
In liquid fire it floated on the air,
In the blue deeps of night its shining trail
Was suddenly in milky radiance shed,
Against the hope which God hath planted there
Even the gates of Hell shall not prevail.