Poems (Hoffman)/Harmony

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4567499Poems — HarmonyMartha Lavinia Hoffman
HARMONY

Too late they met—for youth had passed away,
Met where earth thrilled with love-notes rich and strong
And Nature, like a little child at play
Whose innocence rebuked a thought of wrong,
Sang snatches of sweet song and laughed between;
The softest harmony of song and scene.

Yet not too late they met to learn that each
Loved the fair landscape with a poet's love
And not too late to understand the speech
Interpreted by both from stream and grove,
And not too late to learn what souls may miss,
In life's entanglement of Heavenly bliss.

Perish the thought that hath one shade of sin,
Let angels consecrate their mutual tastes;
Locked is the gate, they may not enter in
To traverse side by side life's desert wastes;
Strong is that gate as God's immortal word,
And over it hangs Mercy's flaming sword.

So consecrate to friendship all the streams
That flow harmoniously through realms of mind;
Friendship as pure and true as angel dreams,
To waken when all night is left behind
Waken to know,—to those who pray and wait
Nothing that's sinless ever comes too late.