Page:Poems Rice.djvu/116

Bring back life and feeling,—
 Alas! alas! 'tis vain
To call the sainted maiden
 Back to earth again.

A prototype, its beauty,
 Of gifts divinely fair;
And easily 'tis blasted
 To blossom brighter there;
The heart shall never weary,
 The soul shall feel no blight,
Symbolical of heaven,
 Of joy, of hope, delight.

Come and read the story
 Upon its petals fair,
How we may shine in glory,
 How we may enter there;
Beautiful, transcendent,
 So may my soul arise,
And bloom for aye immortal,
 In God's own paradise.