POETRY.
AVE ATQVE VALE.
(THE EMPRESS FREDERICK, BORN NOVEMBER 21ST, 1840; DIED AUGUST 5TH, 1901.) REST, noble Heart, with strength not courage spent; With softly-closing eye and tranquil breath Thou welcomest, in unuttered deep content, The dear embrace of death.
Calm in thy desperate pain, so proudly borne, Down the grim Valley where the shadow lay,— No pity sought—but smiling in sweet scorn At 'weakness and dismay; What heart was ever schooled as thine was schooled P Oh, thou wert richly dowered with love and pride, Not that vain pomp by fulsome homage fooled, But power to rule, to guide ; Swift hope, and radiant faith, and wisdom sure, And skill to capture visionary gleams, And generous trust, and love divinely pure, These were thy golden dreams !
And yet thy very frankness made thee foes ;— False pride of race rose muttering at thine car, And jealousy that scowls, and scowling goes To league with craven fear.
And sorrow came, dim-eyed, with finger chill On quivering lip, and drew thee firmly back, Back from the happy pathway, mounting still, Down from the aspiring track.
Ay, width and depth of love—so God hath willed—
Is width and depth of suffering ! We are blind And faithless ! but the restless heart is stilled, And stilled the questioning mind, For Love is mirrored in thine anguished eyes, And Love attends thy faintly-ebbing breath ; Love turns the page, and smiles, beyond the skies, At pain, and doubt, and death.
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