Through a Church Window.
Without the sweet sun shone ; within1
The preacher spun his shining text2
With poor grey words ; I heard him spin3
His drowsy platitudes unvexed ;4
The gracious sunlight made me win5
Praise for this world ;— he praised the next.6
Without I saw the dusk street shine7
With soft Spring light ; above the drone8
Of future bliss, came clear, divine9
Laughter of little children ; prone10
To make this happy omen mine,11
I felt man’s world was still God’s own.12
For lo ! these children fared, footsore,13
In ragged, laughing, straggling bands ;14
Back to the city’s smoke they bore15
The hedgerow’s blossom in their hands ;16
Such country wealth to them was more17
Than all the gold of fabled lands.18
I watched them pass ; my eyes went dim19
With tears of some strange, high delight ;20
These children’s lives were hard and grim,21
Yet earth had beauty in their sight ;22
They knew, these waifs, the ways of Him23
Who stars the thorn with red and white.24
Spring drew their feet to her glad fields25
Beyond the city’s iron ring,26
Since He, who shields the sparrow, shields27
The child’s heart in its blossoming ;28
To their dull lives May blossom yields29
God’s happy wonder of the Spring.30