Page:Poems Welby.djvu/151

While, lightening my heart as I sported along
With bursts of low laughter and snatches of song,
I struck in the pathway half- worn o'er the sod
By the feet that went up to the worship of God.

As I traced its green windings a murmur of prayer
With the hymn of the worshipers rose on the air;
And, drawn by the links of its sweetness along,
I stood unobserved in the midst of the throng,
For awhile my young spirit still wandered about
With the birds, and the winds, that were singing without,
But birds, waves, and zephyrs, were quickly forgot
In one angel-like being that brightened the spot.

In stature majestic, apart from the throng
He stood in his beauty, the theme of my song!
His cheek pale with fervor—the blue orbs above
Lit up with the splendors of youth and of love;
Yet the heart-glowing raptures, that beamed from those eyes,
Seemed saddened by sorrows, and chastened by sighs,
As if the young heart in its bloom had grown cold
With its loves unrequited, its sorrows untold.

Such language as his I may never recall;
But his theme was salvation—salvation to all;
And the souls of a thousand in ecstacy hung
On the manna-like sweetness, that dropped from his tongue;
Not alone on the ear his wild eloquence stole;
Enforced by each gesture it sank to the soul,