Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MOONLIGHT SONATA: INTRODUCTION, by FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MOONLIGHT SONATA: INTRODUCTION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The ills we see
Last Line: In after life and light all shall be plain and clear.
Subject(s): Learning


INTRODUCTION.

THE ills we see, --
The mysteries of sorrow deep and long,
The dark enigmas of permitted wrong, --
Have all one key:
This strange, sad world is but our Father's school;
All chance and change His love shall grandly overrule.

How sweet to know
The trials which we cannot comprehend
Have each their own divinely-purposed end!
He traineth so
For higher learning, ever onward reaching
For fuller knowledge yet, and His own deeper teaching.

He traineth thus
That we may teach the lessons we are taught;
That younger learners may be further brought,
Led on by us:
Well may we wait, or toil, or suffer long,
For His dear service so to be made fit and strong.

He traineth so
That we may shine for Him in this dark world,
And bear His standard dauntlessly unfurled:
That we may show
His praise, by lives that mirror back his love, --
His witnesses on earth, as He is ours above.

Nor only here
The rich result of all our God doth teach
His scholars, slow at best, until we reach
A nobler sphere:
Then, not till then, our training is complete,
And the true life begins for which He made us meet.

Are children trained
Only that they may reach some higher class?
Only for some few school-room years that pass
Till growth is gained?
Is it not rather for the years beyond
To which the father looks with hopes so fair and fond?

Bold thought, flash on
Into the far depths of Eternity;
When Time shall be a faint star-memory,
So long, long gone!
Only not lost to our immortal sight,
Because it ever bears Redemption's quenchless light.

Flash on, and stand
Among thy bright companions, -- spirits blest,
Inhabiting through ages of glad rest
The Shining Land!
Each singing bliss into each other's hearts, --
Outpouring mighty joy that God's full hand imparts.

If sweet below
To minister to those whom God doth love,
What will it be to minister above!
His praise to show
In some new strain amid the ransomed choir,
To touch their joy and love with note of living fire!

With perfect praise,
With interchange of rapturous revelation
From Christ Himself, the burning adoration
Yet higher to raise,
For ever and for ever so to bring
More glory, and still more, to Him, our gracious King!

Look on to this
Through all perplexities of grief and strife, --
To this, thy true maturity of life,
Thy coming bliss;
That such high gifts thy future dower may be,
And for such service high thy God prepareth thee.

What though to-day
Thou canst not trace at all the hidden reason
For His strange dealings through the trial-season, --
Trust and obey:
And, like the child whose story follows here,
In after life and light all shall be plain and clear.





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