The Seraph Speech
THERE is an outcast multitude
Of forms, forgotten and unheard,
By Love untouched and Hope unstirred, —
A pallid army of Despair,
Which mutely faces Want and Care.
Of forms, forgotten and unheard,
By Love untouched and Hope unstirred, —
A pallid army of Despair,
Which mutely faces Want and Care.
God does not give to all a voice
To utter that which goes untold
Of heart-break which their bosoms hold ;
However bitter be the strife,
Unheard they live their tragic life.
To utter that which goes untold
Of heart-break which their bosoms hold ;
However bitter be the strife,
Unheard they live their tragic life.
Their eyes know not the meadows green,
Nor dream they in the city’s gloom
Of singing birds and flowers which bloom;
And vapors of the poisoned street
Fall on them as a winding-sheet.
Nor dream they in the city’s gloom
Of singing birds and flowers which bloom;
And vapors of the poisoned street
Fall on them as a winding-sheet.
But when their pain within our own
Has stirred the tongue so long unused
With words to them so long refused,
’T is then the speech we think our own
Is uttered by a voice unknown.
Has stirred the tongue so long unused
With words to them so long refused,
’T is then the speech we think our own
Is uttered by a voice unknown.
’T is then the silent spaces ring
With seraph echoes far and near ;
And seraph music fills the ear,
When mortal lips cannot express
The measure of their dumb distress.
With seraph echoes far and near ;
And seraph music fills the ear,
When mortal lips cannot express
The measure of their dumb distress.
Robertson James.