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O Saviour, Loving Saviour

O Saviour, loving Saviour, we hear thee gently calling
Us forth to the vineyard to labor for thee;
“Go preach to ev'ry nation,” thou hast to us commanded,
Oh, give us thy spirit, more faithful to be.
O Saviour, loving Saviour, thy message of salvation
Is free unto all who on thee will believe;
But millions yet in darkness are bowing to their idols,
Oh, may they awaken, thy grace to receive.
We are ready, dear Saviour! with zeal now enkindle
These hearts to thy service, and show us the way;
May thy spirit, overflowing, baptize us with fullness

Barcarolle

Last night we sailed, my love and I,
Last night and years ago—
Was it moon or sea, we drifted through?
I think I shall never know!
We had no oar—
We neared no shore—
We floated with the tide;
The moon was white,
And the sea alight,
And none in the world beside.

I and my love, we said farewell—
It is years and years away.
We kissed our last in a life gone by—
I think it was yesterday!
Oh! for heaven, give me
A moon and a sea
To sail, when we both have died,
With never an oar—
With never a shore—
Drifting on with the tide!

Hopeless Love

My hand from my Beloved's skirt I cannot take away,
Though with a sword she smite me sharp, and, in her anger, slay:
I have no place of sheltering, no refuge half so sweet;
If I should fly 'twould only be to creep back to her feet.

Sonnet

Women have loved before as I love now;
At least, in lively chronicles of the past—
Of Irish waters by a Cornish prow
Or Trojan waters by a Spartan mast
Much to their cost invaded—here and there,
Hunting the amorous line, skimming the rest,
I find some woman bearing as I bear
Love like a burning city in the breast.
I think however that of all alive
I only in such utter, ancient way
Do suffer love; in me alone survive
The unregenerate passions of a day
When treacherous queens, with death upon the tread,
Heedless and wilful, took their knights to bed.

A Policeman's Lot

When a felon's not engaged in his employment,
Or maturing his felonious little plans,
His capacity for innocent enjoyment
Is just as great as any honest man's.
Our feelings we with difficulty smother
When constabulary duty's to be done:
Ah, take one consideration with another,
A policeman's lot is not a happy one!

When the enterprising burglar isn't burgling,
When the cut-throat isn't occupied in crime,
He loves to hear the little brook a-gurgling,
And listen to the merry village chime.
When the coster's finished jumping on his mother,

Hope And Love

Through life on journeying, by its thorny paths,
Or pleasant ways—its rank green hemlock wastes,
Or roseate bowers—in utter loneliness,
Or 'mid the din of busy multitudes—
Two babes of beauty linger near us still—
Twin Cherubim—that leave us not until
We've passed the threshold of that crowded inn
Which borders on Eternity! One doth point,
With gleaming eye and finger tremulous,
To clefts in azure, where the sunbeams slumber
On couch of vermeil dye and amethyst,
Bordered with flowers that never know decay;
Where living fountains, cool and argentine,

The Leaf and the Fountain

“T ELL me, kind Seer, I pray thee,
“So may the stars obey thee,
“So may each airy
“Moon-elf and fairy
“Nightly their homage pay thee!
“Say, by what spell, above, below,
“In stars that wink or flowers that blow,
“I may discover,
“Ere night is over,
“Whether my love loves me, or no,
“Whether my love loves me.”

“Maiden, the dark tree nigh thee
“Hath charms no gold could buy thee;
“Its stem enchanted,
“By moon-elves planted,
“Will all thou seek'st supply thee.
“Climb to yon boughs that highest grow,