@3Rise up! How brief this little day? We can but kindle some dim light Here in the darkened, wooded way Before the gathering of night. Come, let us kindle it. The dawn Shall find us tenting farther on. Come, let us kindle ere we go -- We know not where; but this we know, Night cometh on, and man needs light. Come! camp-fire embers, ere we grope Yon gray archway of night. Life is so brief, so very brief, So rounded in, we scarce can see The fruitage grown amid the leaf And foliage of a single tree In all God's garden; yet we know That goodly fruits must grow and grow Beyond our vision. We but stand In some deep hollow of God's hand, Hear some sweet bird its little day, See cloud and sun a season pass, And then, sweet friend, away! Clouds pass, they come again; and we, Are we, then, less than these to God? Oh, for the stout faith of a tree That drops its small seeds to the sod, Safe in the hollow of God's hand, And knows that perish from the land It shall not! Yea, this much we know, That each, as best it can, shall grow As God has fashioned, fair or plain, To do its best, or cloud or sun, Or in His still, small rain. Oh, good to see is faith in God! But better far is faith in good: The one seems but a sign, a nod, The one seems God's own flesh and blood. How many names of God are sung! But good is good in every tongue. And this the light, the Holy Light That leads thro' night and night and night; Thro' nights named Death, that lie between The days named Life, the ladder round Unto the Infinite Unseen.@1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; the earth was without form and void and darkness lay upon the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EASTER WINGS by GEORGE HERBERT LOVE SONGS TO JOANNES by MINA LOY MEDITATIONS OF A HINDU [OR, HINDOO] PRINCE [AND SKEPTIC] by ALFRED COMYNS LYALL MOON AND VENUS by ABUL MUGHIRA SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 18. A PORTRAIT by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |