Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1809–1861)Bereavement
| WHEN some belovèds, ’neath whose eyelids lay | |
| The sweet lights of my childhood, one by one | |
| Did leave me dark before the natural sun, | |
| And I astonied fell and could not pray, | |
| A thought within me to myself did say, | 5 |
| “Is God less God, that thou art left undone? | |
| Rise, worship, bless Him, in this sackcloth spun, | |
| As in that purple!” But I answered, Nay! | |
| What child his filial heart in words can loose, | |
| If he behold his tender father raise | 10 |
| The hand that chastens sorely? Can he choose | |
| But sob in silence with an upward gaze? | |
| And my great Father, thinking fit to bruise, | |
| Discerns in speechless tears both prayer and praise. | |