Page:Roden Noel - A Little Child's Monument - 1881.pdf/72

Moved to where the holy ones are telling
In pure white lilies the Lord's love,
Where amaranth and asphodel a dwelling
Weave around our dove,
Full of wisdom, full of love!

Was it very, very lonely, O my darling!
Very lonely for a little child,
Whom we cherished so, and guarded in his goings,
Carried from us to the wild,
When thy dear bewildered eyes looked back upon us,
And we longed in vain to keep thee, or to follow,
Longed for glimpses of thee disappearing
In the gloomy, guilty hollow?
Ah! if we had seen thee, with companions
Coming forth to meet thee with a smile;
For there are to whom the beatific vision
Hath been granted otherwhile,
While they weeping stood deserted on the desert,
And love was borne o'er wan waves and away!
Yet the Lord of life death is ever near us,
If we go, or if we stay.
Lo! the same mild moon upon the wanderer
Looks, and on the dweller by the hearth;
So the mild large Eye of the All-Father
Wards all worlds, and earth,
Raining a sweet influence of spirits,
For no malignant ray can harm the pure: