Adelaide Anne Procter - Legends and Lyrics (1858)

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Dreams grow holy put in action; work grows fair through starry dreaming,
But where each flows on unmingling, both are fruitless and in vain.

Adelaide Anne Procter
A little longer still, and Heaven awaits thee,
And fills thy spirit with a great delight;
Then our pale joys will seem a dream forgotten,
Our Sun a darkness, and our Day a Night.

Adelaide Anne Procter
Do not look at life's long sorrow; see how small each moment's pain.

Adelaide Anne Procter
Have we not all, amid life's petty strife, Some pure ideal of a noble life That once seemed possible? Did we not hear The flutter of its wings, and feel it near, And just within our reach? It was. And yet We lost it in this daily jar and fret, And now live idle in a vague regret; But still our place is kept, and it will wait, Ready for us to fill it, soon or late. No star is ever lost we once have seen, We always may be what we might have been.

Adelaide Anne Procter
One by one bright gifts from heaven
Joys are sent thee here below;
Take them readily when given,
Ready, too, to let them go.

Adelaide Anne Procter
Be strong to hope, O Heart!
Though day is bright,
The stars can only shine
In the dark night.
Be strong, O Heart of mine,
Look towards the light!

Adelaide Anne Procter
A little longer, and thy Heart, Belovèd,
Shall beat for ever with a Love divine;
And joy so pure, so mighty, so eternal,
No creature knows and lives, will then be thine. A little longer yet — and angel voices
Shall ring in heavenly chant upon thine ear;
Angels and Saints await thee, and God needs thee:
Beloved, can we bid thee linger here!

Adelaide Anne Procter
Shine, ye stars of heaven,
On a world of pain!
See old Time destroying
All our hoarded gain;
All our sweetest flowers,
Every stately shrine,
All our hard-earned glory,
Every dream divine! Shine, ye stare of heaven,
On the rolling years!
See how Time, consoling,
Dries the saddest tears,
Bids the darkest storm-clouds
Pass in gentle rain,
While upspring in glory
Flowers and dreams again!

Adelaide Anne Procter
Be strong to love, O Heart!
Love knows not wrong;
Didst thou love — creatures even,
Life were not long;
Didst thou love God in heaven,
Thou wouldst be strong!

Adelaide Anne Procter
Half my life is full of sorrow,
Half of joy, still fresh and new;
One of these lives is a fancy,
But the other one is true.

Adelaide Anne Procter
I wept that all must die —
"Yet Love," I cried, "doth live, and conquer death —"
And Time passed by,
And breathed on Love, and killed it with his breath
Ere Death was nigh. More bitter far than all
It was to know that Love could change and die —
Hush! for the ages call
"The Love of God lives through eternity,
And conquers all!"

Adelaide Anne Procter
Heaven unites again the links that Earth has broken!
For on Earth so much is needed, but in Heaven Love is all!

Adelaide Anne Procter
A little longer yet — a little longer,
Shall violets bloom for thee, and sweet birds sing;
And the lime branches where soft winds are blowing,
Shall murmur the sweet promise of the Spring!

Adelaide Anne Procter
Know, dear little one! our Father
Will no gentle deed disdain:
Love on the cold earth beginning
Lives divine in Heaven again,
While the angel hearts that beat there
Still all tender thoughts retain.

Adelaide Anne Procter
I have sought, but I seek it vainly,
That one lost chord divine,
Which came from the soul of the Organ,
And entered into mine. It may be that Death's bright angel
Will speak in that chord again,
It may be that only in Heaven
I shall hear that grand Amen.

Adelaide Anne Procter
Words are mighty, words are living:
Serpents with their venomous stings,
Or bright angels, crowding round us,
With heaven's light upon their wings:
Every word has its own spirit,
True or false, that never dies;
Every word man's lips have uttered
Echoes in God's skies.

Adelaide Anne Procter
Seated one day at the organ,
I was weary and ill at ease,
And my fingers wandered idly
Over the noisy keys. I do not know what I was playing,
Or what I was dreaming then;
But I struck one chord of music,
Like the sound of a great Amen.

Adelaide Anne Procter
It quieted pain and sorrow,
Like love overcoming strife;
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life.

Adelaide Anne Procter