Page:Poems Jackson.djvu/243

Though I was dead, I died again for shame;
 Lonely, to flee from heaven again I turned;
The ranks of angels looked away from me
 (Beneath my feet the golden pavements burned).

DANGER.

ITH what a childish and short-sighted sense
Fear seeks for safety; reckons up the days
Of danger and escape, the hours and ways
Of death; it breathless flies the pestilence;
It walls itself in towers of defence;
By land, by sea, against the storm it lays
Down barriers; then, comforted, it says:
"This spot, this hour is safe." Oh, vain pretence!
Man born of man knows nothing when he goes;
The winds blow where-they list, and will disclose
To no man which brings safety, which brings risk.
The mighty are brought low by many a thing
Too small to name. Beneath the daisy's disk
Lies hid the pebble for the fatal sling.

FREEDOM.

HAT freeman knoweth freedom? Never he
Whose father's fathers through long lives have reigned
O'er kingdoms which mere heritage attained.
Though from his youth to age he roam as free