Esther J. Ruskay

WE meet to-day to call upon thy name,

With wistful eyes to contemplate and trace

Each feature of thy well-remembered face;

And as we light the faint memorial flame

To hear above the cadence of our prayer

The brush of wings across the tranquil air,

As though thy radiant spirit rustled there;—

To see thee once again, ere yet we go

Our devious ways, unmindful of the gloom,

And know that though we robed thee for the tomb

Thou livest yet, transfigured and aglow,

In far-off fields of fragrant asphodel,

Where seraphs and thy starry kindred dwell—

Revered and loved and mourned in Israel.