Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Song of the Seeds
By Florence Smith (18451871)’T
We reach and we struggle, we know not where;
We long for something we have not found,
We seek and we find not, but cannot despair.
And so peaceful too—why cannot we stay?
What is this change that is named a birth?
And what is that wonderful thing called Day?
Within us we feel it struggle and thrill,
While upward we reach to find our fate,
And this ceaseless, mysterious want to fulfil.
Will breathing be freedom, and Light be Life?
What mystic change shall we meet with there
When the blossom shall crown this mute, strange strife?
The song so oft upon the earth begun,
Whose closing and triumphant harmonies
Shall ne’er be sounded but beyond the skies.
From the Memorial Volume, edited by H. W. Bellows. 1872.