The Fire Within

As I was going adown the dale Sing derry down dale, and derry down dale, As I was going adown the dale, Adown the dale of a Monday, With never a thought of the Devil his tricks,...

When Elizabeth Chantrey returned to Market Harford, she did so with quite a clear understanding of the difficulties that lay before her. Edward had spoken to her of his uncle’s...

“Will you give me your heart?” she said. “Oh, I gave it you long ago,” said he. “Why, then, I threw it away,” said she. “And what will you give me instead? Will you give me your...

And they that have seen and heard, Have wrested a gift from Fate That no man taketh away. For they hold in their hands the key, To all that is this-side Death, And they count it...

“You know, Liz, he behaved shamefully, but I don’t want there to be a quarrel with Edward, and it would be sure to make a quarrel. And then people would talk, and there’s no kno...

You are as old as Egypt, and as young as yesterday, Oh, turn again and look again, for when you look I know The dusk of death is but a dream, that dreaming, dies away And leaves...

Through fire and frost and snow I see you go, I see your feet that bleed, My heart bleeds too. I, who would give my very soul for you, What can I do? I cannot help your need.

Some days later Elizabeth Chantrey went away for about a month, to pay a few long-promised visits. She went first to an old school-friend, then to some relations, and lastly to...

Grey, grey mist Over the old grey town, A mist of years, a mist of tears, Where ghosts go up and down; And the ghosts they whisper thus, and thus, Of the days when the world wen...

I thought I saw the Grey Wolf’s eyes Look through the bars of night; They drank the silver of the moon, And the stars’ pale chrysolite. From star by star they took their toll, A...

Oh, you shall walk in the mummers’ train, And dance for a beggar’s boon, And wear as mad a motley As any under the moon, And you shall pay the piper— But I will call the tune.

Oh, that I had wings, yea wings like a dove, Then would I flee away and be at rest; Lo, the dove hath wings because she is a dove, God gave her wings and bade her build her nest...

As long as idle dogs will bark, and idle asses bray, As long as hens will cackle over every egg they lay, So long will folks be chattering, And idle tongues be clattering, For t...

My hand has never touched your hand, I have not seen your face, No sound of any spoken word has passed between us two— Yet night by night I come to you in some unearthly place,...

“It’s another attack—a very bad one,” said Edward in the hall. His voice shook a little, and he seemed very nervous. David thought it was certainly a bad attack. He also thought...

You saw the secret and the shrine, You bowed your head and went your way— Oh, was it in the dead of night, Or in the dark that brings the day?

I have forgotten all the ways of sleep, The endless, windless silence of my dream, The milk-white poppy meadows and the stream, The dreaming water soft and still and deep— I hav...

See, God is everywhere, Where, then, is care? There is no night in Him, Then how can we grow dim? There is no room for pain or fear Since God is Love, and Love is here.

Love must to school to learn his alphabet, His wings are shorn, his eyes are dim and wet. He pores on books that once he knew by heart— Poor, foolish Love, to wander and forget.

Then far, oh, very far away, The Wind began to rise, The Sun, the Moon, the Stars were gone, I saw the Grey Wolf’s eyes. The Wind rose up and rising, shone, I saw it shine, I sa...

I thought I saw the Grey Wolf’s eyes. The sun was gone away, Most unendurably gone down, With all delights of day. I cried aloud for light, and all The light was dead and done a...

How did we come here, you and I, With the pool beneath, and the trees above? Oh, even in death or the dusk of a dream, You are heart of the heart of Love.

In Him we live, He is our Source, our Spring, And we, His fashioning, We have no sight except by His foreseeing, In Him we live and move and have our being, He spake the Word, a...

You laid your hand upon my soul, My soul that cried to you for rest, And all the light of the lost Sun Was in the comfort of your breast.