174
poems.
"I SEE THEE STILL."
Mother and wife!
From thine abode of purity and peace,
Thou comest in thy gentle beauty back,
As full of meek and quiet loveliness,
As when thy home was earth.
From thine abode of purity and peace,
Thou comest in thy gentle beauty back,
As full of meek and quiet loveliness,
As when thy home was earth.
"I see thee still."
A year, that works such deep mysterious change,
Cannot efface thy memory from my heart.
The friend, within whose veins the tide of life
Flows warm, may change, and the sweet flower of love
Lie crushed and scentless in our desolate path.
The dead change not: with mystic beauty crowned,
They visit us, and with mysterious tones,
Low whispered in the midnight solitude,
Or twilight's gentle hush, they breathe the vow
Of love, unchanged, unchangeable, divine.
A year, that works such deep mysterious change,
Cannot efface thy memory from my heart.
The friend, within whose veins the tide of life
Flows warm, may change, and the sweet flower of love
Lie crushed and scentless in our desolate path.
The dead change not: with mystic beauty crowned,
They visit us, and with mysterious tones,
Low whispered in the midnight solitude,
Or twilight's gentle hush, they breathe the vow
Of love, unchanged, unchangeable, divine.
"I see thee still;" not in thy coffined sleep,
When weeping friends in silent sorrow met,
To bear thy precious ashes to their rest.
I see thee, as thy living image moved,
Blessing the home where thou didst do thy work,
In singleness of heart, as serving God.
Yes, sainted one! each deed of holy love,
Not on the crumbling marble traced, but stamped
In characters that time cannot efface,
Deep on my heart, bears record of thy worth.
When weeping friends in silent sorrow met,
To bear thy precious ashes to their rest.
I see thee, as thy living image moved,
Blessing the home where thou didst do thy work,
In singleness of heart, as serving God.
Yes, sainted one! each deed of holy love,
Not on the crumbling marble traced, but stamped
In characters that time cannot efface,
Deep on my heart, bears record of thy worth.
