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LAYS FROM THE WEST
LAYS FROM THE WEST M. A. NICHOLL BY
"STELLA"--M.A. NICHOLL
Then the spirit reached her fingers
Taper things of rosy snow
Took my songs and as she took them
"Tiny germs" she whispered "go!
Root among the coming hours
Seeds are ye of many flowers
Which from out the winds will grow!"
* * * * *
Dedicated
WITH MUCH GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION
TO
_MRS. T. SPOTISWOOD ASH_
THE MANOR HOUSE
BELLAGHY IRELAND.
* * * * *
IN THE NORTHWEST.
"I'll not forget Old Ireland were it fifty times as fair."
In myriads o'er the prairie
Bright flowers bloom strangely fair
There's beauty in the clear blue sky
There's sweetness in the air;
And loveliness with lavish hand
Decks dell and dingle gay;
Yet still I love my native land--
The Green Isle far away.
The poplar quivers in the breeze
And by the blue lake's side.
The regal iris tall and fair
Blooms in her native pride;
But I dream of the broad beeches' shade
In glens beside Lough Neagh
And my longing thoughts go back to thee
O Green Isle far away!
Strange birds in painted plumage gay
In hundreds haunt the grove;
O'er marsh and moor the loon and heron
The coot and plover rove;
But I miss the lark's glad matin song
And the thrush and blackbird's lay
The summer songsters sweet and wild
In the Green Isle far away.
Along the blue horizon line
The "bluffs" rise 'gainst the sky
But in dreams I see Old Erin's coast--
Her mountains wild and high
Slieve Gallon with his hoary head
Gold-crowned at close of day
When sunset lights the grand old hills
In the Green Isle far away.
There's beauty in the woodland wilds
With their varied foliage fair
But cowering from the light of day
The grim wolf shelters there.
Ah! dear old woods where I have roamed
At eve of summer day
No hidden dangers haunt your glades
In the Green Isle far away.
The clear Assiniboine winds free
Through many a fertile vale;
The antlered deer and graceful hind
Bound o'er the wooded dale;
But I miss the quiet rural scenes--
The farm-house thatched and grey
That memory fondly pictures now
Of the Green Isle far away.
The Sabbath morn its holy calm
Breathes o'er the prairie lands
And the answering heart hears Nature's psalm
And the wild woods clap their hands.
But I long to hear the church bell's sound
Tell to these wilds that day
When thousands meet to praise and pray
In the Green Isle far away.
Here life lays hold of brighter things
For the fair years to be
But the deathless Past and all her dreams
Old land belong to thee!
The buried love the buried hope
Of youth's glad summer day
That blend with unforgotten scenes
Of the Green Isle far away.
And while we love this pleasant land
And own it good and fair
Our hearts' first love goes backward
And fondly lingers there--
Back to the dear home country
Then forward to that day
When all shall meet together
From the Green Isle pass'd away.
SONG.
"In the gloaming Oh my darling."
Oh! green-bosomed Isle as the summer day's gloaming
Lies dreamy and dun on the prairie's wild breast
There my worn wayward heart o'er the wild waves is roaming
Far far to the scenes that are dearest and best.
As by bluff and by woodland by swamp and by meadow
The gloom gathers round in its dim mystic pall
Then my fancies come forth spirit-children of shadow
Slow gliding from haunts where the lone night-birds call.
When the wind ardent lover in songful caressing
Speaks low to the grasses that bend to his breath
And the dew woos the rose with the balm of its blessing
And steals it with love from the shadow of death.
Then I seek the wild glen when the new moon is beaming
All weirdly and wan through a cloud's fleecy haze
'Till I stand young and free in the land of my dreaming
Clasping hands with the phantoms of happier days.
And then oh! mavourneen in grey distance flying
The present the real grows dimmer and dies
See but the moonbeams but hear the winds sighing
And bask fancy bound in the light of your eyes.
My own! though the years in the gloom of their sadness
Stand frowning 'tween me and the light of my star
And memory can feel the wild might of loves madness
Or scoff as rude Time its first sweetness would mar.
Again by the banks where Moyola is flowing
We stray as the moonbeams smile sweet through the dell
Unheeded the moments unmarked in their going
Nor dreamed we of woe in the sound of "farewell."
Is it lost--all the light of the fair morning vision?
Is spirit to spirit unanswering cold?
No it never shall die while in memory's Elysian
It lingers in beauty and brightness untold.
Love is love and though Fate blasts our hope vines may sever
From the stay which their tendrils in fondness entwine
Yet the past of our joy we must cherish forever
And spirit meet spirit at memory's shrine.
A MEMORY.
"Indulgent Memory wakes and lo! they live!"
--RODGERS
Deathless while the years are flying
And all lesser hopes are dying.
To my widowed heart near lying
By a life-time's love embalmed
Is a memory dear and tender
And in dreams its bygone splendour
Sweetest holiest balm can render
To my grief by Time uncalmed.
In life's morning young and early
Glistening fair through dew-drops pearly
Burst a bud that promised fairly
Through the length of future days.
Ah! it charmed my passion'd dreaming
Bathed in beauty's brightness beaming
Fadeless still and deathless seeming
In fond Hope's delusive haze.
And as when in wild December
June's calm twilights we remember
So this dream in shadowy splendour
Ever haunts my lonely way;
And I see in fond delusion
Glowing as in light Elysian
The entrancing old-time vision
Doom'd so early to decay.
Days when Hope how false! still flaunted
Through my dreamings love enchanted
Framed by busy Fancy haunted
By glad visions of delight--
Morns of light and sunsets golden
Dreams of legends grand and olden
Hopes for future years withholden
From our youthful yearning sight.
Past and gone! Ah! vain my sighing--
Hope's dead leaves are round me lying
But their fragrances undying
Like a hallowed incense rise;
And I feel with joy unspoken
That the spirit love unbroken
Leaves this Memory for a token
Of its truth that never dies.
In that land whose beauty vernal
Through tried ages blooms eternal
Thou in bliss undreamed supernal
Baskest in the glory-light
Where celestial joys inspire
All heaven's vast unnumbered choir
With sweet songs that never tire
Through the fadeless summer bright.
Here how sad this dreary roaming
Through the shadows of earth's gloaming
Waiting for the longed-for coming
Of the lingering Morning Star;
But swift time is onward fleeting--
Backward is the past retreating
Nearer nearer draws our meeting
In the future dim and far.
AFTER LIFE'S FEVER.
_Obiit June 1882_.
--"And then a flood of light a seraph's hymn
And God's own smile forever and forever."
Oh! pale calm face; eyes by the Death-kiss sealed
Cold hands upon the silent bosom folden;
Oh! soul set free--of all sin's sickness healed
Basking in light from mortal eyes withholden
_In coelo quies_.
Still heart that ached and throbb'd with human passion
Locks white with snow of many a winter past
Tired body weary after earth's poor fashion
Sleep calmly till the waking trumpet blast--
_In coelo quies_.
All over now--the heart-ache and the burning
Of thoughts so trammelled by this "mortal coil;"
The soul has cast behind its moans and yearning
The hands are resting from the long life's toil--
_In coelo quies_.
I mournful gazer watching by the portal
Whence thou from death to life hast entered in
Would fain catch one stray gleam of light immortal
To tell me ever drowning earth's wild din
_In coelo quies_.
I might not hear the angel welcome ringing
Nor see the pearly portals open wide
Wherein the ransomed band the new song singing
In white robes wander by life's river side
_In coelo quies_.
"_In coelo quies_" while the storms are beating
Along earth's desert moorlands wild and wide;
While skies shall lower and angry waves are meeting
Thy bark is moored--thou art beyond the tide
_In coelo quies_.
"_In coelo quies_"--Rest pure deep eternal
Peace in a perfect blissful endless calm;
Charmed by the beatific joys supernal
Lull'd by the melody of seraph's psalm
_In coelo quies_.
Here we but dream it all--the rest--the glory
Here we but yearn for it in sob and pain;
Till knees wax weary and till locks grow hoary
Still "westward journeying" at length to gain
_In coelo quies_.
But _thou_ mayest sleep; thy toilsome warfare ended
The long rough life-path has been nobly trod
And with our lost ones thou sweet songs hast blended
To hail them found beside the throne of God?
_In coelo quies_.
LIGHT AT EVENTIDE.
Round us in the stillness spreading
Comes the night.
Mortal ears can't hear the treading
Of her footsteps soft and light.
Dusky veil that shades the valleys
Bringing rest;
Shadowy glooms in greenwood alleys.
Twilight dreamings sweet and blest.
All the day-time cares are ended
And instead
Now by unseen bands attended
Far in fancy we are led.
Misty forms of mystic seeming
Hover near;
Memory's myriad tapers gleaming
Light old scenes and make them clear--
Morn's vain hopes and noon's stern sorrows
Tears and cares;
Days of toiling and to-morrow's
Bringing less of wheat than tares.
And the chequered varied pages
Of life's book
Seem a sea whose calms and rages
Now the tired heart cannot brook.
Evening calm! ah best and purest
Time of peace;
Soothing balm when hope is surest
To bid all vain doubting cease.
Pointing on when near the pleasant
Rest awaits;
When we leave this weary present
And have gained the pearly gates.
And as evening shadows creeping
Gather round
Dim eyes worn so weak with weeping
Learn to smile as peace is found.
In the hope so full of cheering
And delight--
Home sweet home! our rest we're nearing!
Evening time shall bring us light.
Light of heaven! Earth's gloom adorning
With thy smile
Earnest of the eternal morning
After this brief "little while."
CHRISTMAS EVE.
Ruddy bright the dying embers
In the glooming glow and burn
Scenes of olden-time Decembers
Ashes now in Times' great urn
That the heart so well remembers
At this haunted hour reborn:--
All the fairy scenes Elysian
Born again in recollection
Seen with mirror-like reflection
Throng upon the wondering vision.
Once again I hear the river
In the darkness rush and roar
See the pine-boughs wave and quiver
Hear the oak trees blasted hoar
Muttering as their gaunt arms shiver
"Come again oh! days of yore!"
Come oh times of hope and longing
When the beauteous pure ideal
Seemed tangible and real--
"Love the light of Truth's belonging."
And the woodland walks enchanted
By the moonlight's mystic sheen
Seen as near as when Hope flaunted
In the distance dimly seen
That the witched hour seems haunted
By the joys that once have been.
Dear old days! they seem returning.
Though their radiance long has vanished
Though their rays stern fate has banished
Fancy still can see them burning.
See their magic nameless graces
Through the shadows flit and gleam
See again beloved faces
Shine around as in a dream
And the well-remembered places
Of the bygone nearer seem
Till all present melancholy
Fades away and sweet and tender
Visions of life's spring-time splendour
Gleam among the bay and holly.
Hark! the Christmas bells are ringing
From the grey church-steeple near
And the choir are sweetly singing
"Nowel! Hail Messiah here!
Nowel! for He cometh bringing
Unto all mankind good cheer."
Through the night the music stealing
Bringeth soothing sweet and pleasant
Sheds a peace upon the present
Future days in light revealing.
AT ANCHOR.
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday to-day and forever"
HEBREWS xiii. 8.
In life's young morning blue-eyed promise smiled
O'er a fair future of enchanting grace
And sweet toned love the golden hours beguiled
And Fortune's radiant smile illumed the place.
But change dread vulture swooped upon her prey.
And seized my treasures as Time's car sped on
Then traitor love took wings and fled away.
And long ere noon I wept a setting sun.
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