John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.
Personal PoemsFollen
F
I look up from this page of thine,
Is it a dream that thou art nigh,
Thy mild face gazing into mine?
A placid heaven of sweet moonrise,
When, dew-like, on the earth below
Descends the quiet of the skies.
The gentle lips which knew no guile,
Softening the blue eye’s thoughtful care
With the bland beauty of their smile.
Of Frost and Fire and moaning Sea
Will cast its shade of doubt between
The failing eyes of Faith and thee.
Where through the twilight air of earth,
Alike enthusiast and sage,
Prophet and bard, thou gazest forth,
The reaching of a mortal hand
To put aside the cold and pale
Cloud-curtains of the Unseen Land;
In words which reach my inward ear,
Like whispers from the void Unknown,
I feel thy living presence here.
The dust thy pilgrim footsteps trod,
Unwasted, through each change, attest
The fixed economy of God.
The mind whose kingly will they wrought?
Their gross unconsciousness survive
Thy godlike energy of thought?
Hath thy fine spirit meekly borne
The burthen of Life’s cross of pain,
And the thorned crown of suffering worn.
Around us like a dungeon’s wall,
Silent earth’s pale and crowded tombs,
Silent the heaven which bends o’er all!
In spectral silence, hushed and lone,
To the cold shadows which divide
The living from the dread Unknown;
And on the lip which moves in vain,
The seals of that stern mystery
Their undiscovered trust retain;
Its mournful doubts and haunting fears,
Two pale, sweet angels, Hope and Faith,
Smile dimly on us through their tears;
To think of thee as living yet;
To feel that such a light as thine
Could not in utter darkness set.
Since thou hast left thy footprints there,
And beams of mournful beauty play
Round the sad Angel’s sable hair.
Is glorious with its evening light,
And fair broad fields of summer lie
Hung o’er with greenness in my sight;
The sunset’s golden walls are seen,
With clover-bloom and yellow grain
And wood-draped hill and stream between;
Are hidden from an angel’s eyes;
If earth’s familiar loveliness
Haunts not thy heaven’s serener skies.
The lesson which that beauty gave,
The ideal of the pure and true
In earth and sky and gliding wave.
The soul an upward impulse here,
With a diviner beauty blends,
And greets us in a holier sphere.
The humbler flowers of earth may twine;
And simple draughts from childhood’s well
Blend with the angel-tasted wine.
And let the seeking lips be dumb,
Where even seraph eyes have failed
Shall mortal blindness seek to come?
And that the same returnless tide
Which bore thee from us still glides on,
And we who mourn thee with it glide.
And to our gaze erelong shall turn
That page of God’s mysterious book
We so much wish yet dread to learn.
Thy spirit bent its trembling knee;
Who, in the silent greeting flower,
And forest leaf, looked out on thee,
Which Time, nor Change, nor Death can move,
While with thy childlike faith we lean
On Him whose dearest name is Love!