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A DREAM OF RESURRECTION.
A DREAM OF RESURRECTION.
O heavenly beautiful it lay,It was less like a human corse
Than that fair shape in which perforce
A lost hope clothes itself alway.
The dream showed very plain: the bed
Where that known unknown face reposed,—
A woman's face with eyelids closed,
A something precious that was dead;
Where that known unknown face reposed,—
A woman's face with eyelids closed,
A something precious that was dead;
A something, lost on this side life,
By which the mourner came and stood,
And laid down, ne'er to be indued,
All flaunting robes of earthly strife;
By which the mourner came and stood,
And laid down, ne'er to be indued,
All flaunting robes of earthly strife;
Shred off, like votive locks of hair,
Youth's ornaments of pride and strength,
And cast them in their golden length
The silence of that bier to share.
Youth's ornaments of pride and strength,
And cast them in their golden length
The silence of that bier to share.
No tears fell,—but with gazings long
Lorn memory tried to print that face
On the heart's ever-vacant place,
With a sun-finger, sharp and strong.—
Lorn memory tried to print that face
On the heart's ever-vacant place,
With a sun-finger, sharp and strong.—
