The Prism + 

A pool of broken sunbeams lay + 

Upon the passage-floor, + 

Radiant and rich, profound and gay + 

As ever diamond bore. + 

Small, flitting hands a handkerchief + 

Spread like a cunning trap: + 

Prone lay the gorgeous jewel-sheaf + 

In the glory-gleaner’s lap! + 

Deftly she folded up the prize, + 

With lovely avarice; + 

Like one whom having had made wise, + 

She bore it off in bliss. + 

But ah, when for her prisoned gems + 

She peeped, to prove them there, + 

No glories broken from their stems + 

Lay in the kerchief bare! + 

For still, outside the nursery door, + 

The bright persistency, + 

A molten diadem on the floor, + 

Lay burning wondrously. + 

How oft have I laid fold from fold + 

And peered into my mind⁠— + 

To see of all the purple and gold + 

Not one gleam left behind! + 

The best of gifts will not be stored: + 

The manna of yesterday + 

Has filled no sacred miser-hoard + 

To keep new need away. + 

Thy grace, O Lord, it is thyself; + 

Thy presence is thy light; + 

I cannot lay it on my shelf, + 

Or take it from thy sight. + 

For daily bread we daily pray⁠— + 

The want still breeds the cry; + 

And so we meet, day after day, + 

Thou, Father in heaven, and I. + 

Is my house dreary, wall and floor, + 

Will not the darkness flit, + 

I go outside my shadowy door + 

And in thy rainbow sit. + 