Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
John Greenleaf Whittier. 18071892690. Vesta
O CHRIST of God! whose life and death | |
Our own have reconciled, | |
Most quietly, most tenderly | |
Take home thy star-named child! | |
Thy grace is in her patient eyes, | 5 |
Thy words are on her tongue; | |
The very silence round her seems | |
As if the angels sung. | |
Her smile is as a listening child’s | |
Who hears its mother’s call; | 10 |
The lilies of Thy perfect peace | |
About her pillow fall. | |
She leans from out our clinging arms | |
To rest herself in Thine; | |
Alone to Thee, dear Lord, can we | 15 |
Our well-beloved resign. | |
O, less for her than for ourselves | |
We bow our heads and pray; | |
Her setting star, like Bethlehem’s, | |
To Thee shall point the way! | 20 |