9 6 
HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 
Their use do yield, but fail to grasp or thwart. 
Let ’s stop awhile and rest in memory’s chain ! 
And then came light of truth with swiftest dart, 
So swift and sure it came that all grew bright, 
As night by firefly’s torch or floating star. 
And love enwove with touch sublime and strong, 
Where freedom’s voice arose for wrongs of kind; 
Such wrongs are felt, scarce sung in rhythmic line. 
Then wide the world of human form expands, 
And tribes and nations to one vast compound 
Of common interest and impulse rise, 
Not bound by ties of artificial end. 
I ’d haste this news, with greeting, all chords tune, 
And sound aloft ’mid haunts and marts of men! 
‘ Comrade, there stand you, brave, with all man’s poise 
To breast the storm, to ride the gale of life, 
To bring new hopes to minds of starving men, 
To meet, though meeting may but parting prove, 
In moments rare of sympathetic hours; 
To me has come this zest, to know again 
Upon life’s hurried track ere journey’s end 
That valiant hearts untouched by dross or coin, 
With ardent beat of pulse and throbbing brain, 
Live true, undaunted, yea, in spirit one 
To spurn all false, to scorn all gain 
Save Freedom’s goal — though to reach that were vain! ” 
In 1897 she spent some weeks at Chestnut Hill, at the resi¬ 
dence of her sister, and toward the end of April she wrote the 
following descriptive poem. 
SUNSHINE ON THE DELAWARE. 
A sun-flashed wave, 
An oar’s quick stroke, 
A sail of whitest sheen; 
A cloudless blue, 
A freshening breeze, 
And banks aglow with spring. 
A shore astir with ’longshoremen 
A-hauling-in the seine; 
