Anne Charlotte Lynch (1815–1891)

NIGHT closes round me, and wild threatening forms

Clasp me with icy arms and chain me down,

And bind upon my brow a cypress crown,

Dewy with tears; and heaven frowns dark with storms.

But the one glorious memory of thee

Rises upon my path to guide and bless,—

The bright Shekinah of the wilderness,

The polar star upon a trackless sea,

The beaming Pharos of the unreached shore;

It spans the clouds that gather o’er my way,—

The rainbow of my life’s tempestuous day.

O blessed thought! stay with me evermore,

And shed thy lustrous beams where midnight glooms,

As fragrant lamps burned in the ancient tombs.