Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EARTH'S SHADOW, by FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EARTH'S SHADOW, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I have but passed the first short stage
Last Line: E'en I may tune a sinless lyre.
Subject(s): Aging


I HAVE but passed the first short stage
Of life, and yet I'm growing weary;
For every step towards riper age
The way becomes more dreary.

I look behind;—few years ago
The world seemed full of fairy flowers,—
I loved them; for I did not know
How sin pervades Earth's loveliest bowers.

Like Italy's fair sunny vales
With unknown deathly vapors teeming—
Or like Sahara's sand-charged gales
Beneath a sun unclouded beaming,—

Such is our Earth. Roam where you will,
Seems loveliness the eye entrancing;
The silent glen, the breezy hill,
The sun-tipped wavelet blithely dancing.

But gaze again. Each zephyr's breath
Uplifts a veil, dark truths revealing;
For all is stained with sin, and death
The fairest buds is grimly sealing.

That sense of sin! It casts a cloud
O'er all Earth's scenes of glee and pleasure:
Is nought then pure amid her crowd
Of joys? nought spotless of her treasure?

Nought, nought! cries Echo. How I love
The spirit which to me is given!
My priceless gem, my cherished dove,
My sweetest, dearest gift of heaven

How oft I've sought for solace in
My own loved soul in hours of sadness;
Oh, how I love it! It has been
My more than friend, my fount of gladness.

But oh, 'tis sinful! Even here
My simple joy and love are ending;
How can the mind to me be dear
Where sin with every thought is blending?

If e'en my Eden is not pure,
How can my heart's love rest below?
Say, will the passage-bird endure
To tarry 'mid the northern snow?

It cannot rest! Like early dew
A pure warm Sun hath called it higher
Where sin is not; where, holy too,
E'en I may tune a sinless lyre.





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