Poems (Hale)/"Life has no charm for me"

by Mary Whitwell Hale

"LIFE HAS NO CHARM FOR ME."

    Has life no charm for thee?
Are there no visions of the joyous past,
Like holy spells around thy pathway cast?
    Canst thou no blessings see,
To cheer thee in thy loneliness of heart,
And to thy soul their gracious aid impart?

    O! art thou all unblest?
Come there no glorious hopes thy heart to cheer?
Is there no hand to wipe the starting tear?
    No thought of that calm rest,
Which the meek child of God alone may share,
Where comes no withering grief, no anxious care?

    Where is the soul's deep love,
Resting on God in pure, unchanging trust?
Where is that faith which, from the earth and dust,
    Can point the eye above,
To purer, nobler mansions in the sky,
Where its freed energies can never die?

    O! let thy soul rejoice:
Life has a charm, though dark to thee it seem.
What though may blighted be thy heart's bright dream?
    There is a gentle voice,
Bidding thy heart, amid this deep despair,
On God repose the burden of its care.

    And death shall bring no gloom:
It is the pathway which thy soul must tread,
As to thy Father's mansions thou art led.
    Beyond the silent tomb,
When to that heaven thy spirit wings its flight,
Thy God shall be thine Everlasting Light.