Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning (18091861)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. | |