Words are lighter than the cloud-foam
Of the restless ocean spray;
Vainer than the trembling shadow
That the next hour steals away.
By the fall of summer rain drops
Is the air as deeply stirred;
And the rose-leaf that we tread on
Will outlive a word.
Yet, on the dull silence breaking
With a lightning-flash, a word,
Bearing endless desolation
On its lightning wings, I heard.
Earth can forgo no keener weapon,
Dealing surer death and pain:
And the cruel echo answered
Through long months again.
I have known one word hang star-like
O'er a dreary waste of years,
And it only shone the brighter
Looked at through a "mist of tears;"
While a weary wanderer gathered
Hope and heart on life's dark way
By its faithful promise shining
Clearer day by day.
I have known a spirit calmer
Than the calmest lake, and clear
As the heavens that gazed upon it,
With no wave of hope or fear;
But a storm had swept across it,
And its deepest depths were stirred
Never, never, more to slumber--
Only by a word.
Words are mighty, words are living;
Serpents with their venomed 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 uttered
Echoes in God's skies.
First published in The Queenslander, 24 November 1883
Of the restless ocean spray;
Vainer than the trembling shadow
That the next hour steals away.
By the fall of summer rain drops
Is the air as deeply stirred;
And the rose-leaf that we tread on
Will outlive a word.
Yet, on the dull silence breaking
With a lightning-flash, a word,
Bearing endless desolation
On its lightning wings, I heard.
Earth can forgo no keener weapon,
Dealing surer death and pain:
And the cruel echo answered
Through long months again.
I have known one word hang star-like
O'er a dreary waste of years,
And it only shone the brighter
Looked at through a "mist of tears;"
While a weary wanderer gathered
Hope and heart on life's dark way
By its faithful promise shining
Clearer day by day.
I have known a spirit calmer
Than the calmest lake, and clear
As the heavens that gazed upon it,
With no wave of hope or fear;
But a storm had swept across it,
And its deepest depths were stirred
Never, never, more to slumber--
Only by a word.
Words are mighty, words are living;
Serpents with their venomed 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 uttered
Echoes in God's skies.
First published in The Queenslander, 24 November 1883
