Page:Barham Beach - a poem of regeneration.djvu/25

When joy enfolds us, when a soul springs in the worthless clod,
Ah, then in happy reverence we name that Power God !
And yet, city devastate, great dishonored queen,
A lucent lake shall lap at last thy limbs in turquoise sheen,
And thou, mountain gashed and gored, but patiently await
Time s touch and thou shalt be adorned as a bride is for her mate,
But when a living soul endures such agony as this,
When in life s smiling rosy path there yawns a black abyss,
And when the whole fair fabric hath been seethed in roaring flame
And earthquake terrors, pangs of hell and merited foul shame,
What vine shall deck the framework gaunt, what clinging tender moss
Shall hide the desolation and veil o er the scar and loss,
And whence shall flow the cleansing wave, the healing in land sea
Neath whose blue joy the hideous past shall sweetly shrouded be?