The shadowing walls of stone-and-granite gloom Are damp as with the vapors of a tomb; They press me in, my very life to crush And trample under men's convulsive rush. While out beyond, the laughing gardens bloom With flowers woven on the magic loom Of velvet lawns, where leafy lilacs brush The flirting wings of every dallying thrush. And there, O God, not here between these walls, May earth receive me when Thy Spirit calls My soul to dwell in Spring's eternal Room Far out beyond, where laughing gardens bloom With flowers woven on the widening loom Of endless time that spins no death nor doom. PART II SONGS FOR THE EVENING HOUR THE SPIRIT OF EVENING O, the day hurries by With a flush in the sky Like the blush on a young girl's cheek, While her feet touch the tips Of the hill, and her lips Are moist with a dew that is sweet. On the slopes she has kissed There cling veils of white mist She has loosed from her shoulders in flight. And I reach through the haze Till my soul reels and sways, Asking Evening the secret of Night. Then I see the veils shift, Setting shadows adrift; The Sibyl has cycled her flight. And my soul in its gaze Through the challenging haze Stands baffled and blind in the night. A BEACON FACE To-day a passing throng with anxious pace Brought me a glimpse of one sweet, noble face Transfigured by the tenderness and grace Of seasoned sorrow and a hard-lost race. It shamed me that I looked so sullen, sad, When I, full richly blessed and amply clad Should live in smiles and making others glad, And keep within whatever spite I had. This face, whose smile was built on grief lived through, Both lifted up my own, yet warned me too, For as the shining beacon, born of barren rocks And reared on reefs that hide their rending shocks Would not be there dispensing its warm light Were there not dangers lodged in wily night; Just so, this passing, patient face Could ne'er have touched me at my hurried pace But for the courage of its tender grace That came with sorrow and a hard-lost race. THE VOICE FROM THE FIELD [Dedicated to the National burying ground at Gettysburg on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of that Battle.]