Читать книгу: «Papers from Overlook-House», страница 11

XIII.
TO MY WIFE

 
The lapidary day by day
Brightened the sparkling gem,
And then that diamond flashed each ray
Fit for a diadem.
So in this trusting heart of mine
Increaseth love for thee;
A love whose rays shall brighter shine
When earth shall close o'er me.
 
 
The lapidary knoweth nought
But diamond-dust alone,
By which full glory may be wrought
Upon that precious stone.
So day by day increaseth love
By my true love alone;
The love that trial shall approve
A measure of thy own.
 

XIV.
FADING AWAY

 
From morn to night, thine eye, my dying-boy
Is on those autumn leaves that ever wave,
A sea of leaves on that great forest oak;
Each wave of that wide sea a wave of fire.
 
 
Ah! boy! before those tinted leaves are sear,
And fallen with light crush upon the earth,
Thou wilt be gone. Oh! glorious canopy
Around thy dying bed! All nature seems
To yield a triumph conqueror ne'er received,
When all the world knew that he entered Rome,
To the Redeemer's little one who waits
Just at the gate of life.
 
 
Blest is that tree
That lulls thy quiet. 'Tis one beauteous flame
Less glorious only than the burning bush,
When God was present in the wilderness.
Is He less present to thy spirit now?
 
 
Soon, soon a change will come, and thou wilt see
The angels round thee. They will glow in light
From the Redeemer's presence. Then how dim
All earth's great transport round us in this scene!
Why hast thou lived, my boy? Thy little life
Has all been sorrow: all but some few smiles
To thy dear mother, and to me, to him
Thy brother here unconscious of his loss,
And to thy faithful nurse who never knew
Her care was trouble, sorrowing but for thee.
 
 
But thou hast lived because thou art redeemed:
Because a life was here begun for heaven.
Thou livest to say, love not this passing world.
'Tis not our home, or surely such as thou
Would be exempt from sorrow. All is well.
Yea, blessed is the family where death
Enters to take an infant. Without fear
All look unto the world where it has rest.
No gentler sorrow falls on all than this.
No gentler sorrow nurtures mutual love.
 
 
O easy faith to know that it is gone
By the bright pathway to eternal realms
Which He first opened, when he left the cross,
The earth he blessed, and so ascended there,
Where with Him all the blessed at death have rest!
 

THE END