54
TO FREDERIKA BREMER.
LINES
TO FREDERIKA BREMER.
“Hereafter, when I no more belong to earth, I should love to return to it as a spirit, and impart to men the deepest of that which I have suffered and enjoyed, lived and loved. And no one need fear me; should I come in the midnight hour to a striving and unquiet spirit, it would be only to make it more quiet, its night-lamp burn more brightly, and myself its friend and sister.”—Miss Bremer’s Letter.
Hereafter!—nay, thou hast thy wish e’en here;
To many a striving spirit dost thou come,
Sweet lady, from thy far-off northern home,
Like a blest presence from another sphere,
And love and faith, the night-lamps of the soul,
Have burned with brighter flame at thy control.
To many a striving spirit dost thou come,
Sweet lady, from thy far-off northern home,
Like a blest presence from another sphere,
And love and faith, the night-lamps of the soul,
Have burned with brighter flame at thy control.
A friend and sister art thou now to those
Who weep o’erburdened with life’s weary load,
And faint and toil-worn tread the desert road;
To them thou beckonest from thy high repose:
Thou’st gained that steep where endless day appears,
That faith whose followers are baptized with tears.
Who weep o’erburdened with life’s weary load,
And faint and toil-worn tread the desert road;
To them thou beckonest from thy high repose:
Thou’st gained that steep where endless day appears,
That faith whose followers are baptized with tears.
