Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.
The Belfry of Bruges and Other PoemsA Gleam of Sunshine
T
Let me review the scene,
And summon from the shadowy Past
The forms that once have been.
Beneath Time’s flowing tide,
Like footprints hidden by a brook,
But seen on either side.
There the green lane descends,
Through which I walked to church with thee,
O gentlest of my friends!
Lay moving on the grass;
Between them and the moving boughs,
A shadow, thou didst pass.
And thy heart as pure as they;
One of God’s holy messengers
Did walk with me that day.
Bend down thy touch to meet,
The clover-blossoms in the grass
Rise up to kiss thy feet.
Of earth and folly born!”
Solemnly sang the village choir
On that sweet Sabbath morn.
Poured in a dusty beam,
Like the celestial ladder seen
By Jacob in his dream.
Sweet-scented with the hay,
Turned o’er the hymn-book’s fluttering leaves
That on the window lay.
Yet it seemed not so to me;
For he spake of Ruth the beautiful,
And still I thought of thee.
Yet it seemed not so to me;
For in my heart I prayed with him,
And still I thought of thee.
Thou art no longer here:
Part of the sunshine of the scene
With thee did disappear.
Like pine-trees dark and high,
Subdue the light of noon, and breathe
A low and ceaseless sigh;
As when the sun, concealed
Behind some cloud that near us hangs,
Shines on a distant field.