Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/77

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NOONDAY REST.
71


O peaceful hour of summer noon!
Life has its midnight slumber;
Has it no noonday rest for us,
When cares shall cease to cumber?




GONE TO THE COUNTRY.


GONE to the country, darling,
Sooner than we had planned,
With a broken rosebud folded
Softly within your hand?

What clothes took you, my darling ?
"My crimson robes made white."
Found you the path at midnight?
"The Lamb thereon gives light."

What food upheld you fainting?
"The Tree of Life was there."
And were you thirsty never?
"Whoever thirsts drinks there."

And were you lonely, dearest?
"Nay; angels round me pressed,
And Christ, my Elder Brother,
Carried me on His breast.

"And now I ve reached the country
Where storms are all unknown;
The jasper walls are shadowless
Around the shining throne.