Poems (Sharpless)/Regret

by Frances M. Sharpless

For works with similar titles, see Regret.

REGRET

The spell of another life has bound me
 As the twilight shadows thickly fall,
And memories sweet and sad surround me;
 Memories I can but half recall.

Away in the misty hum of noises
 Lie the wearying cares of the world without,
But the murmurs of gentle spirit-voices
 Within my chamber are floating about;

And my soul with a thrill of repentant yearning
 Rests in the twilight land of shade;
Away from the world, heart-sick I'm turning
 To mourn o'er the early wrecks I have made—

Wrecks of the good, the better hours
 Granted to me by the Love of God;
Wrecks of the pure celestial flowers
 I've trampled upon my ambitious road;

Wrecks of the holiest, deepest feeling
 In light unthought I have cast aside,
And the gentle regret for their lot, when stealing
 O'er my heart, was crushed by a stormy pride.

The spell of another life is round me,
 A spell I cannot nor dare resist,
And the ghosts of murdered hours surround me,
 Glooming pale thro' the chilling mist.

A cross is there—a cross whose shadow
 Darkened the sunshine in my path,
As the trees fall athwart the light in a meadow;
 But I trampled it down in my puny wrath.

The heavens grew black as the tempest gathered,
 I felt my idols were cold, too late;
But I raised my head when the storm I weathered
 In proud defiance of any fate.

Thy smile has softened my heart, O Saviour!
 Meekly I bow where I would not resist;
Thou hast redeemed all my sinful behaviour
 On the cross that gleams thro' the lurid mist.

Thou hast spoken, my soul befriending,
 The spell of the other life is Thine;
See, my rebellious neck I am bending
 To bear a burden Thou'st made divine.

Now the shadows are slowly fading
 And the mist grows clearer with purer light,
And upon the clouds that my heart are shading
 Thy cross is shedding a gilding bright.