Poems (Hale)/The first Tenant of Mount Pleasant

by Mary Whitwell Hale

THE FIRST TENANT OF MOUNT PLEASANT.

 

"There was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid."

The first, above whose garden-tomb
Spring's bright and perfumed flowers shall bloom.
Our lips a parting requiem swell,
Of grief too deep for words to tell.
Thou in thine opening bloom art gone;
We are left lingering here alone.

Yet more: the first to whom was given
To lead this quiet path to heaven.
Thy Saviour shared the same calm rest,
Thy Lord that Eastern garden blest.
By faith upheld, sustained by prayer,
Thou couldst not shrink his lot to share.

Nor will we mourn, as those who find
No hope to cheer the sinking mind.
Thou wast too pure to linger here,
Thy spirit sought a nobler sphere,—
The radiant realms beyond the sky,
The Christian's glorious rest on high.

And oft, as Nature's bloom we greet,
Round thy hushed rest our steps shall meet.
'Mid matin songs and vesper dews,
On thy sweet memory we will muse,
And catch, as from an altar-shrine,
New springs of faith and hopes divine.

Rest thee, young sleeper! take thy rest,
Thou early freed! thou richly blest!
Such tears as sainted souls might shed,
We scatter o'er thy hallowed bed.
Rest! for thy task on earth is done,
Rest! for thy crown in heaven is won.