Page:A New Zealand verse (1906).pdf/201
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Consummation.
165
CII.
O Day of Happiness.
O day of happiness! O blissful hour!
She comes across the fields whom all men bless.
Behind her buds of gladness spring and flower,
O day of happiness!
Lightly she moves, and hardly seems to press
The solid earth, yet with her joy and power
Flow free to lift the lowly in distress.
And she is mine: she leaves her maiden bower
For me, O wonder! Little winds caress
And kiss her curling hair; O blissful hour,
O day of happiness!
She comes across the fields whom all men bless.
Behind her buds of gladness spring and flower,
O day of happiness!
Lightly she moves, and hardly seems to press
The solid earth, yet with her joy and power
Flow free to lift the lowly in distress.
And she is mine: she leaves her maiden bower
For me, O wonder! Little winds caress
And kiss her curling hair; O blissful hour,
O day of happiness!
Mary E. Richmond
CIII.
Consummation.
The perfect night is here; each shining star
Beams at its brightest, and the rolling sphere
Is full of dim enchantments from afar:
The perfect night is here!
O Lord of Love and Life! in holy fear
I kneel and pray, no dissonance may mar
The marriage of our spirits; draw Thou near,
Thou knowest, Father, what Thy children are;
Make Thou this day of marvels yet more dear;
For now, soft curtained in her glancing car,
The perfect night is here.
Beams at its brightest, and the rolling sphere
Is full of dim enchantments from afar:
The perfect night is here!
O Lord of Love and Life! in holy fear
I kneel and pray, no dissonance may mar
The marriage of our spirits; draw Thou near,
Thou knowest, Father, what Thy children are;
Make Thou this day of marvels yet more dear;
For now, soft curtained in her glancing car,
The perfect night is here.
Mary E. Richmond