Sonnets to a Voice, 2

A clear voice made to comfort and incite,
Lovely and peaceful as a moonlit deep, —
A voice to make the eyes of strong men weep
With sudden overflow of great delight;
A voice to dream of in the calm of night;
A voice — the song of fields that no men reap,
A treasure wrung by God himself from sleep!
A voice no song may follow in its flight;

A queenly rose of sound with tune for scent;
A pause of shadow in a day of heat;
A voice to make God weak as any man,
And at its pleadings take away the ban
'Neath which so long our spirits have been bent, -
A voice to make death tender and life sweet!