Poems (Edwards)/"There's a Silvery Lining to every Cloud"

by Matilda Caroline Smiley Edwards

"THERE'S A SILVERY LINING TO EVERY CLOUD."

O! we know not, we know not, what future joys
 May spring from the shadows that 'round us crowd,
The sun shines brightest just after the storm,
 "There's a silvery lining to every cloud."

Our pathway may teem with a thousand thorns,
 But deep in the shade of the leaflet's green,
The holy flowers with their dewy eyes,
 Looking up from their delicate beds are seen;
And the humblest flower has the sweetest breath,
 Which it yields more sweetly when deepest bowed,
And we feel as we trample it down in death,
 "There's a silvery lining to every cloud."

And though our pathway, here, is a thorny one,
 And our hopes all fade like the light of even,
Yet we look with faith upon the lowering cloud
 Whose "silvery lining" is seen in Heaven;
Let us bear with meekness, the gloom it flings
 O'er our spirits here,r it will soon be past,
Though dark to us now, it will brighten soon,
 And turn to "a silvery" cloud at last.

There's a mournful shadow upon my heart,
 And a dark, deep shadow upon my brow,
And a darker cloud over the future hangs,
 And saddens my life with its denseness now;
But the bright bow of promise is arching the skies,
 It is folding its wings 'round the gloomy shroud,
And I feel, O! I feel, though my pathway is dark,
 "There's a silvery lining to every cloud."