And tho' mine own eyes fill with dew, Drawn from the spirit thro' the brain, I will not even preach to you, 'Weep, weeping dulls the inward pain.' Let Grief be her own mistress still. She loveth her own anguish deep More than much pleasure. Let her will I will not say, 'God's ordinance Of Death is blown in every wind;' For that is not a common chance His memory long will live alone In all our hearts, as mournful light That broods above the fallen sun, And dwells in heaven half the night. Vain solace! Memory standing near Cast down her eyes, and in her throat Her voice seem'd distant, and a tear Dropt on the letters as I wrote. I wrote I know not what. In truth, For he too was a friend to me: Both are my friends, and my true breast Bleedeth for both; yet it may be That only silence suiteth best. Words weaker than your grief would make Grief more. "Twere better I should cease Although myself could almost take The place of him that sleeps in peace. Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace : Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul, While the stars burn, the moons increase, Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet. Nothing comes to thee new or strange. Sleep full of rest from head to feet; Lie still, dry dust, secure of change. ON A MOURNER. I. NATURE, so far as in her lies, Imitates God, and turns her face To every land beneath the skies, Counts nothing that she meets with base, II. Fills out the homely quickset-screens, Steps from her airy hill, and greens The swamp, where humm'd the dropping snipe, With moss and braided marish-pipe; III. And on thy heart a finger lays, Saying, Beat quicker, for the time Is pleasant, and the woods and ways IV. And murmurs of a deeper voice, Going before to some far shrine, With one wide Will that closes thine. V. And when the zoning eve has died Where yon dark valleys wind forlorn, Come Hope and Memory, spouse and bride, From out the borders of the morn, With that fair child betwixt them born. VI. And when no mortal motion jars The blackness round the tombing sod, Thro' silence and the trembling stars Comes Faith from tracts no feet have trod, And Virtue, like a household god VII. Promising empire; such as those Once heard at dead of night to greet Troy's wandering prince, so that he rose Had rest by stony hills of Crete. You ask me, why, tho' ill at ease, Whose spirits falter in the mist, It is the land that freemen till, That sober-suited Freedom chose, The land, where girt with friends or foes A man may speak the thing he will; A land of settled government, A land of just and old renown, Where Freedom slowly broadens down From precedent to precedent: Where faction seldom gathers head, But by degrees to fullness wrought, The strength of some diffusive thought Hath time and space to work and spread. |