Song-Prayer: After King David.

I shall be satisfied     With the seeing of thy face.     When I awake, wide-eyed,     I shall be satisfied     With what this life did hide,     The one supernal grace!     I shall be satisfied     With the seeing of thy face.     DECEMBER 27, 1879     Every time would have its song         If the heart were right,     Seeing Love all tender-strong         Fills the day and night.     Weary drop the hands of Prayer         Calling out for peace;     Love always and everywhere         Sings and does not cease.     Fear, the caitiff, through the night         Silent peers about;     Love comes singing with a light         And doth cast him out.     Hate and Guile and Wrath and Doubt         Never try to sing;     If they did, oh, what a rout         Anguished ears would sting!     Pride indeed will sometimes aim         At the finer speech,     But the best that he can frame         Is a peacock-screech.     Greed will also sometimes try:         Happiness he hunts!     But his dwelling is a sty,         And his tones are grunts.     Faith will sometimes raise a song         Soaring up to heaven,     Then she will be silent long,         And will weep at even.     Hope has many a gladsome note         Now and then to pipe;     But, alas, he has the throat         Of a bird unripe.     Often Joy a stave will start         Which the welkin rends,     But it always breaks athwart,         And untimely ends.     Grief, who still for death doth long,         Always self-abhorred,     Has but one low, troubled song,     I am sorry, Lord.     But Love singeth in the vault.         Singeth on the stair;     Even for Sorrow will not halt,         Singeth everywhere.     For the great Love everywhere         Over all doth glow;     Draws his birds up trough the air,         Tends his birds below.     And with songs ascending sheer         Love-born Love replies,     Singing Father in his ear         Where she bleeding lies.     Therefore, if my heart were right         I should sing out clear,     Sing aloud both day and night         Every month in the year!