THE ANCIENT WOMAN'S SONGS.-I. LIGHT of dead and of dying days! O Love! in thy glory go, In a rosy mist and a moony haze, But what is left for the cold grey soul, GEORGE MACDONALD. [From Phantastes, chap. xix. :-"Whether I fainted or slept, I do not know, but as I returned to consciousness, before I seemed to have power to move, I heard the woman singing and could distinguish the words. . . Now I could weep."]. . THE ANCIENT WOMAN'S SONG.-II. B ETTER to sit at the waters' birth, To live in the love that floweth forth, Be thy heart a well or love, my child, For a cistern of love, though undefiled, GEORGE MACDONALD. From Phantastes, chap. xix. :-"When she saw me weeping she sang. earth, loving the white lady as I had never loved her before."] I rose from the [From Phantastes, chap. xx. :-"I tried to repay them with song, and many were the tears they shed over my ballads and dirges."] ADELA CATHCART'S SONG. HE waters are rising and flowing Over the weedy stone Over and over it going: It is never gone. So joy on joy may go sweeping Over the head of pain- [From Adela Cathcart, vol. ii. chap. iv.] GEORGE MACDONALD. DIAMOND'S SONG. HERE did you come from, baby dear? Where did you get your eyes so blue? What makes the light in them sparkle and spin? Where did you get that little tear? I found it waiting when I got here. What makes your forehead so smooth and high? What makes your cheek like a warm white rose ? Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss ? Where did you get this pearly ear? God spoke, and it came out to hear. Where did you get those arms and hands? Love made itself into hooks and bands. Feet, whence did you come, you darling things? From the same box as the cherubs' wings. How did they all just come to be you? God thought about me, and so I grew. But how did you come to us, you dear? GEORGE MACDONALD. [From At the Back of the North Wind, chap. xviii. :-" You never made that song, Diamond,' said his mother. No mother, I wish I had. But it's mine for all that.' 'What makes it yours?' 'I love it so.'"] |