Labor and the Angel

Chapter 33: A SONG.

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About This Book

A collection of lyrical and narrative poems that intertwine rural and natural imagery with meditations on work, love, and moral responsibility. Poems depict harvests, seasonal change, and small lives—often pairing intimate domestic scenes with broader social observation—while recurring angelic and spiritual motifs frame labor as both suffering and sacred duty. Several sequences offer seasonal songs and short dramatic narratives; others turn to elegiac or reflective moods, addressing poverty, endurance, consolation, and the consolatory powers of love and service. The tone ranges from vivid sensory description to moral and communal critique, united by plain diction and musical cadence.

A SONG.

In the ruddy heart of the sunset,
Fading and fading still,
A planet throbs and smoulders,
Over the sapphire hill.

A mist steals up from the marshes,
Spreading tender and bright;
A heron floats from his haunt in the reeds,
Through the ruby light.

The elm-trees towered with shadow
Seem dripping and cool with dew;
There’s a sigh in the cedar covert,
But never a breeze comes through.

A thrush keeps ringing and ringing—
Ringing—now he is still,
There’s a starry light in a window
On the dark, dark hill.

The home that’s far away
Comes stealing back to me,
With the calling of the thrushes
In the bonny birch-tree.

My eyes are full of tears
For to-day and yesterday,
For the yearning and the yearning,
And the heart that’s far away.