And gnawed my heart in grief within its shadow.
So one day bowed in woe beside the grave
The weight grew deadly, and I called aloud
That God should witness to my life in ruin.
And God's word reached me through the little grave
Where in the grass my face was buried weeping
His peace came through it like a pent-up breath
That rolled from some great world whose gates had oped,
And blew upon my wild and hardened heart,
And swept my woe before it like a leaf.
My dried heart drank the meaning of the peace:
True love shall trust, and selfish love must die,
For trust is peace, and self is full of pain;
Arise, and heal thy brother's grief; his tears
Shall wash thy love and it will live again.
little grave, I thought 't was love had died,
But in thy bosom only lies my sorrow.
1 see my darling in the marble now—
My wasted leaf—her kind eyes smiling fondly,
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THE STATUES IN THE BLOCK.
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