Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By The Prisoner of Love (1904). IV. Summer’s Parable

Frederick William Orde Ward (1843–1922)

I SEE the ripple on the corn

Which runneth gaily to and fro,

And watch the rising of the morn

Or hear the noon-tide breezes blow;

The shadow rests on belfry walls,

I mark the nodding grasses raise

Their pennons when the wild wind calls,

And song-birds join the general praise.

The blossom blushes as it bows

Its head more humbly, and the dew

In pearls and diamonds decks those brows

It washes every night anew;

The keel grates on the golden beach,

The blue smoke riseth as a prayer,

And far off on the upland reach

Through red earth gleams the silver share.

I hear the pulsing of the wheels

And mighty springs that work Thy Law,

Father, and all my spirit kneels

To Thine in knowledge that is awe;

O Thou art beautiful and blest

In every flower and every tree,

For what is nature but Thy Breast

Which draws Thy children close to Thee?