This page has been validated.
142
RENEWAL
What hope and what ambition,
What dreams beyond recall!
And look we for fruition,
To find them ashes all?
Is life the wraith of love—of faith?
Then let the darkness fall!
The sparks—how fast they dwindle!
How faint their being glows!
Quickly the fire rekindle—
Ah, quickly! ere it goes!
Woo living breath from the lips of death!—
From ashes bring the rose!
********
Kind God! The bells, in gladness!
The rose of hope hath bloomed!
For, consecrating sadness,
Life hath its own resumed,
And welcomes here the new-born year—
A phœnix, unconsumed!
