O thou who dwellest in the day,
Behold, I pace amidst the gloom:
Darkness is ever round my way,
With little space for sunbeam room.

Yet Christian sadness is divine,
Even as thy patient sadness was:
The salt tears in our life's dark wine
Fell in it from the saving Cross.

Bitter the bread of our repast;
Yet doth a sweet the bitter leaven:
Our sorrow is the shadow cast
Around it by the light of Heaven.
O Light in light, shine down from Heaven!


* * * * *


PADRAIC COLUM


"_I SHALL NOT DIE FOR YOU_"

(From the Irish)

O woman, shapely as the swan,
On your account I shall not die.
The men you've slain--a trivial clan--