29.12.2010, 18:45
LITTLE SAMUEL,
Or Light and Gloom by the Fireside.
These changes at our weather-wisdom mock ;
But yesterday, the lord of all the year
Upon the front of this white marble clock
Sat like a star of honour, keen and clear.
Small as a spark : to-day, the mantelshelf
And time-piece mirror not his living beams ;
Nought but wan window-lights and pallid gleams,
Where burn'd, in miniature, the Sun himself !
Then frost, now cloudy thaw. In gilded coat
Above the clock, the infant Samuel kneels
In shine or shade, or when the thunder peals,
He lifts his praying hands and murmurs not :
Oh ! may such holy temper be my lot.
Whatever mood each passing day reveals '
Or Light and Gloom by the Fireside.
These changes at our weather-wisdom mock ;
But yesterday, the lord of all the year
Upon the front of this white marble clock
Sat like a star of honour, keen and clear.
Small as a spark : to-day, the mantelshelf
And time-piece mirror not his living beams ;
Nought but wan window-lights and pallid gleams,
Where burn'd, in miniature, the Sun himself !
Then frost, now cloudy thaw. In gilded coat
Above the clock, the infant Samuel kneels
In shine or shade, or when the thunder peals,
He lifts his praying hands and murmurs not :
Oh ! may such holy temper be my lot.
Whatever mood each passing day reveals '