Page:The college beautiful, and other poems.djvu/83

And he bears our curses, he carries our thanks,
As he takes his place in the pilgrim ranks
Of the dim-eyed years who journey along,
Shrilling us back a discordant song,
That mingles and blends with the distance'and ends
In a harmony soft and strong.

Long foretold, in the morning cold,
With pain and music and mirth,
The New Year gleams on the broken dreams
Of the fast-revolving earth.
A secret, a change, and a mystery,
What hath not been and what is to be,
Nourished and cherished and hidden away,
Saved by Time for this ripening day,
To work a deed forever decreed
And a mission it must obey.

All unknown, it is thou alone
Who canst tell thine errand aright,
A whispered thought when the world was not
And a sign made in the night.
Far from the touch of our vain surmise,
In thy folded hours thy meaning lies,
To some for blessing, to some for curse,
Yet none would thy destined dawn disperse,
For it works in the plan that is more than man
And is well for the universe.