The Poetical Works of George MacDonald (Parables)
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Doors and windows, tents and grave-clothes, winters and eggs and seeds,
Ye shall all be opened and broken and torn; ye are but to serve my needs!
On the will of the Father all lovely things are strung like a string of
beads
For his heart to give the obedient child that the will of the father
heeds.
SONG-PRAYER: AFTER KING DAVID.
I shall be satisfied
With the seeing of thy face.
When I awake, wide-eyed,
I shall be satisfied
With what this life did hide,
The one supernal grace!
I shall be satisfied
With the seeing of thy face.
DECEMBER 27, 1879
Every time would have its song
If the heart were right, Seeing Love all tender-strong
Fills the day and night.
Weary drop the hands of Prayer
Calling out for peace; Love always and everywhere
Sings and does not cease.
Fear, the caitiff, through the night
Silent peers about; Love comes singing with a light
And doth cast him out.
Hate and Guile and Wrath and Doubt
Never try to sing; If they did, oh, what a rout
Anguished ears would sting!
Pride indeed will sometimes aim
At the finer speech, But the best that he can frame
Is a peacock-screech.
Greed will also sometimes try:
Happiness he hunts! But his dwelling is a sty,
And his tones are grunts.
Faith will sometimes raise a song
Soaring up to heaven, Then she will be silent long,
And will weep at even.
Hope has many a gladsome note
Now and then to pipe; But, alas, he has the throat
Of a bird unripe.
Often Joy a stave will start
Which the welkin rends, But it always breaks athwart,
And untimely ends.
Grief, who still for death doth long,
Always self-abhorred, Has but one low, troubled song, I am sorry, Lord.
But Love singeth in the vault.
Singeth on the stair; Even for Sorrow will not halt,
Singeth everywhere.
For the great Love everywhere
Over all doth glow; Draws his birds up trough the air,
Tends his birds below.
And with songs ascending sheer
Love-born Love replies, Singing Father in his ear
Where she bleeding lies.
Therefore, if my heart were right
I should sing out clear, Sing aloud both day and night
Every month in the year!
SUNDAY,