Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
164 LIGHT AND DARK.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
For where large stars are fiercely gleaming , And the flaming orient sky , brass-bound ,
With a lurid ominous light is beaming , The wild beasts spurn the reeking ground ,
As if their shudd ' ring sense was ' ware , As they seek their silent terrible lairs ,
Of nameless horrors , wild despairs ; White-limbed girls forlornly flying ,
And a burden of dying , dying , dying , Is borne along the air .
And thro' the invisible spaces above God ' s angels are bearing souls set free
Thro' torture and shame and agony ; ( Loved ones who won their death from love );
And golden mosque and minaret With severed mangled limbs are set ;
Fair Saxon hair all dimmed with gore , And soft pale breasts all rudely torn ,
And babes whom English mothers bore , Are brought out day by day to die ;
Sweet stars quench'd ' neath that cruel sky , Prey to each hungry morn .
Oh ! mother hearts I oh , mother eyes ! Shall ye not wake to bleed and weep ,
As ye clasp your infants mother-wise , For the nameless babes who lonely sleep !
Poor babes , their " mothers' pets " and pride , Who in their rosy beauty died ;
Whose tortured shrieks still echo o ' er Thy God-accursed den , Indore !
Oh ! mother heart ! oh ! mother love ! Here peace and joy , there woe and sin ;
But the same blue sky bends far above—So farso far , perchance within
, Tears may not reach , nor sorrow sound ! Nay , in God ' s hand all Fate is bound .
Though tear-stained eyes are dim and blind , And misery dulls the listening ear ,
Our God hath power to loose and bind , And praise and prayer alike doth hear !
Death follows Joy , Woe heralds Death , The gates part wide , yet both lead on
To one vast shrine , where Holy Faith Sees through all change , the changeless One .
Through Light and Dark—in East and West—One goal to all—one Father ' s breast .
I . B
164 LIGHT AND DARK .