_Out Of The Storm._

The huge winds gather on the midnight lake, Shaggy with rain and loud with foam-white feet, Then bound through miles of darkness till they meet The harboured ships and city’s squares, and wake From steeples, domes and houses sounds that take A human speech, the storm’s mad course to greet; And nightmare voices through the rain and sleet Pass shrieking, till the town’s rock-sinews shake.

Howl, winds, around us in this gas-lit room! Wild lake, with thunders beat thy prison bars! A brother’s life is ebbing fast away, And, mounting on your music through the gloom, A pure soul mingles with the morning stars, And with them melts into the blaze of day.

ST. LUKE’S HOSPITAL, DULUTH, May 17th, 1894.