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 raindrops 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 starlike 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.
I have known a word more gentle Than the breath of summer air;In a listening heart it nestled,And it lived for ever there.Not the beating of its prison Stirred it ever,night or day;Only with the heart's last throbbing Could it fade away.
Words are mighty,words are living:Serpents with their venomous 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.
