Zinzendorff and Other Poems/Death of a Son of the late Honorable Fisher Ames

4045238Zinzendorff and Other PoemsDeath of a Son of the late Honorable Fisher Ames1836Lydia Huntley Sigourney


DEATH OF A SON OF THE LATE HONORABLE FISHER AMES.


'Tis o'er. The bolt that rends the sky
    And rives the lordly tree,
Doth scarcely work so strange a deed
    As Death hath done for thee:
And so we lay thee in the tomb,
    Son of a patriot line,
Let not majestic manhood boast
    Who sees a grave like thine.

And She is there, that honor'd form
    O'er whom thy filial care,
Did shed such hallow'd charm as made
    Life's lonely winter fair;
That mother mourns, whose hand so oft
    Within this funeral shade,
Hath with a meek, unchanging trust
    Her cherish'd idols laid.


We go the way their steps have trod,
    From love's forsaken bowers:
Their simple shroud, their narrow house,
    Their lowly bed are ours;
And in those mansions of the soul
    Where tear was never shed,
Doubt not there yet is room for us,
    For so the Saviour said.

Oh could we cheerfully to God
    Yield back the friends he gave,
Or with such tear as Jesus shed
    Bedew their peaceful grave,
How pure from the Refiner's hand
    The spirits gold would rise,
And Faith from transient sorrow gain
    New fitness for the skies.