Esoteric V10: July 1896 - Iapsop.com

A MORNING GIFT.
BY ELI!IK CAI!t!ELL I!M.lTH.
It was late in November of 189!i, and Autumn, like a gentle
guest, still lingered lovingly with us, as if loth to say farewell.
The pensive-eyed pansies and pale yellow chrysanthemums, iu
the deserted shrubbery, told of her benign prest!nce; though
the au11tere, unbroken gray of the ~loud11 and the sharp frosty
air heralded the fast approach of Winter.
I awoke one morning in the early twilight to bear the wind
sighing plaintively in the lt!afl~tss grove; and, turning in my
bed, I lifted the dainty drapt!ry that bid my view of the world
outside. Oh, what a different world it was !-a white, white
world. The ancient traveller had arrived at last, and he was
no ungenerous guest; for his introductory gift had been a
thickly woven mantle, more 110ft, more fair than richest ermine.
It was 1\8 if he woultl protect our helplesRntlliB from his rude
and forceful ways. that we might not he startled into ungrateful
averRion to him.
But with my first knowledge of hi>~ majestic presence there
unfoltled in my mind a new conception, like a clearly written
l'lc&·ull when the Real is suddenly ba·oken. The breath of poesy
had touched roo. and I hi&Stily a·ose and sought my desk, where,
as faRt as my pen conld move across the page, I wrote the
following verseM. At their dose I returnt>d to my toilet, and
by the time it WllS completed, I could not remember· one line
that I had penned. The picture had utterly faded, and I read
my own verses-if ,I can c;,)} them my own-as if I had never
seen them. Haci 1 endeavored to criticise them. I might have
cbaugetl their arrangement a little, but I have preferred to
leave them aa they Cllllle, "bot from the pt!ll.''
EMPTY ARMS.
Tht- Wiutl is dmnting 1\ lullllby.·
Hark to his sigh !
b he not hu11hing the flo;er11 to 11leep.
J1 it fall~t from the sky.
Will wt- uut misK tlwm. \'Oil aud I.
Through Snmmt-J•'s ,Jt-t-~:
Digitized by Coogle