By the Sea, and Other Verses

<h2><SPAN name="IN_THE_DESERT" id="IN_THE_DESERT">IN THE DESERT</SPAN></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Ah me! what life since hers in age agone<br/></span> <span class="i2">Hath not known Hagar's hour in desert wild;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Outcast from sheltering home, adrift, alone,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Bereft of love's sweet ministry, her child&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Her heart's one treasure&mdash;late so fond and fair,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Become a burden more than she could bear;<br/></span> <span class="i2">All earth and sky a strange enfolding scroll<br/></span> <span class="i0">Writ o'er with nameless pain and sense of need<br/></span><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</SPAN></span> <span class="i0">To which nor pitying eye nor ear gave heed<br/></span> <span class="i2"><i>Till came the thought of God.</i> Even so the soul,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Consumed with vain regret and doubt and dread&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i2">As she upon the barren sand her boy&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Lays all it once had counted hope and joy<br/></span> <span class="i0">Upon the desolate waste itself had spread;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Self-abnegating, tho with bitter cry&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i2">"I yield thee, but I cannot see thee die."<br/></span> <span class="i0">But, passing thence, the agonizing plea<br/></span> <span class="i0">Faith transforms into tuneful harmony,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Glad to remember "Thou, God, seest me."<br/></span></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />