Excerpt from Words: Their Use and Abuse

Words arc 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 blighting wings, I heard.

Earth can forge no keener weapon.

Dealing surer death and pain,

And the cruel echo answered

Through long years 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

Then 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.

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