A DIALOGUE.

"O happy happy land!
Angels like rushes stand
         About the wells of light."--
         "Alas, I have not eyes for this fair sight:
Hold fast my hand."--

"As in a soft wind, they
Bend all one blessed way,
         Each bowed in his own glory, star with star."--
         "I cannot see so far,
         Here shadows are."--

"White-winged the cherubim,
Yet whiter seraphim,
         Glow white with intense fire of love."--
"Mine eyes are dim:
         I look in vain above,
And miss their hymn."--

"Angels, Archangels cry
One to other ceaselessly
         (I hear them sing)
One 'Holy, Holy, Holy,' to their King."--
"I do not hear them, I."--
"Joy to thee, Paradise,--
         Garden and goal and nest!
Made green for wearied eyes;
         Much softer than the breast
Of mother-dove clad in a rainbow's dyes.

"All precious souls are there
         Most safe, elect by grace,
         All tears are wiped forever from their face:
Untired in prayer
         They wait and praise,
         Hidden for a little space.

"Boughs of the Living Vine,
They spread in summer shine
         Green leaf with leaf:
Sap of the Royal Vine, it stirs like wine
         In all both less and chief.

"Sing to the Lord,
         All spirits of all flesh, sing;
For He hath not abhorred
         Our low estate nor scorned our offering:
         Shout to our King."--

"But Zion said:
         My Lord forgetteth me.
Lo, she hath made her bed
         In dust; forsaken weepeth she
         Where alien rivers swell the sea.
"She laid her body as the ground,
         Her tender body as the ground to those
Who passed; her harpstrings cannot sound
In a strange land; discrowned
         She sits, and drunk with woes."--

"O drunken not with wine,
         Whose sins and sorrows have fulfilled the sum,--
         Be not afraid, arise, be no more dumb;
Arise, shine,
         For thy light is come."--

"Can these bones live?"--
                 "God knows:
         The prophet saw such clothed with flesh and skin
         A wind blew on them and life entered in;
They shook and rose.
         Hasten the time, O Lord, blot out their sin,
         Let life begin."