Four Songs , opus 53

Death sits without the door of life
And peers through the cracks,—and grins
Upon the multitudes within, that pass
Before his leering glance.

And now and then
Through a widening crack he reaches in,
And lo, another soul has gone
From the certainties of earth
And entered the uncertainties beyond.

Snow-clad earth in the moonlight glistens,
Dazzling night in deep silence listens,
Hush over hill and dale,
Quiet the wintry gale,
To each starry snow-flake from skies above,
The silver moonbeams carry a message of love !

Golden glow of summer sun—
A pool in a woodland dell,
Birches trembling in ecstasy,
Willow boughs sweeping
O'er the waters' edge,
And beyond, the green grass.

We sit in the quiet
Of the shade, you and I,
Awed by the hushed silence
And forgetful of the world.
Would it were always summer
By a pool in a woodland dell !

From the shifting sands of the lone white dunes
I gaze upon the sea,
Watching the billows that rise and fall
With a rhythmical majesty.
Restless thou art and restful too,
With their changing moods, O sea,
Now calm, now surging in tempest tossed,
Thou are all of Life's symbol to me.