ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER

We always may be what we might have been.

Hark! the hours are softly calling Bidding Spring arise To listen to the rain-drops falling From the cloudy skies To listen to Earth’s weary voices Louder every day Bidding her no longer linger On her charm’d way But hasten to her task of beauty Scarcely yet begun.

Joy is like restless day; but peace divine like quiet night; Lead me, O Lord, till perfect Day shall shine through Peace to Light.

The men are much alarmed by certain speculations about women; and well they may be, for when the horse and ass begin to think and argue, adieu to riding and driving.

Do not look at life's long sorrow; see how small each moment's pain.

Have we not all, amid life's petty strife, / Some pure idea of a noble life / That once seemed possible?

No star is ever lost we once have seen, we always may be what we might have been.

I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be a pleasant road.

Joy is like restless day; but peace divine like quiet night; Lead me, O Lord, till perfect Day shall shine through Peace to Light.

The men are much alarmed by certain speculations about women; and well they may be, for when the horse and ass begin to think and argue, adieu to riding and driving.

No star is ever lost we once have seen, we always may be what we might have been.

Dreams grow holy put in action.

I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be a pleasant road.

Seated one day at the organ, I was weary and ill at ease, and my fingers wandered idly over the noisy keys. It seemed the harmonious echo from our discordant life.

We always may be what we might have been.

I know too well the poison and the sting of things too sweet.

Words are mighty, words are living:Serpents with their venomous stings,Or bright angels, crowding round us,With heaven's light upon their wings:Every word has its own spirit,True or false, that never dies;Every word man's lips have utteredEchoes in God's skies.

Have we not all, amid life's petty strife, Some pure ideal of a noble life That once seemed possible? Did we not hear The flutter of its wings, and feel it near, And just within our reach? It was. And yet We lost it in this daily jar and fret, And now live idle in a vague regret; But still our place is kept, and it will wait, Ready for us to fill it, soon or late. No star is ever lost we once have seen, We always may be what we might have been.

Have we not all, amid life's petty strife, / Some pure idea of a noble life / That once seemed possible?

See how time makes all grief decay.

Each man has some part to play.

Do not look at life's long sorrow; see how small each moment's pain.

Do no cheat thy Heart and tell her, 'Grief will pass away.'

Hark! the hours are softly calling Bidding Spring arise To listen to the rain-drops falling From the cloudy skies To listen to Earth’s weary voices Louder every day Bidding her no longer linger On her charm’d way But hasten to her task of beauty Scarcely yet begun.

Dreams grow holy put in action; work grows fair through starry dreaming, But where each flows on unmingling, both are fruitless and in vain.