Poem by George MacDonald

To Garibaldi, with a Book

  When at Philippi, he who would have freed
  Great Rome from tyrants, for the season brief
  That lay 'twixt him and battle, sought relief
  From painful thoughts, he in a book did read,
  That so the death of Portia might not breed
  Unmanful thoughts, and cloud his mind with grief:
  Brother of Brutus, of high hearts the chief,
  When thou at length receiv'st thy heavenly meed,
  And I have found my hoping not in vain,
  Tell me my book has wiled away one pang
  That out of some lone sacred memory sprang,
  Or wrought an hour's forgetfulness of pain,
  And I shall rise, my heart brimful of gain,
  And thank my God amid the golden clang.

1. To One Threatened with Blindness
2. General Gordon
3. Russell Gurney
4. The Chrysalis
5. To A. J. Scott

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