145
BIRTHDAY ODE
August 6, 1891.
I.
cast upon time is light,
Days whose sound was a spell shed round from wheeling
wings as of doves in flight,
Meet in one, that the mounting sun to-day may triumph,
and cast out night.
Two years more than the full fourscore lay hallowing
hands on a sacred head—
Scarce one score of the perfect four uncrowned of fame
as they smiled and fled:
Still and soft and alive aloft their sunlight stays though
the suns be dead.
