Through chill and fire, and smoke and pain, It calmly shines with widening orb, "Dear Jane," he said, "my only And while to those. great beams I love! "I leave a toilsome lot to thee; To bear, a widow, though unwed, The lonely memory of me. 37. "So young, so beautiful as thou, To feel thou art on earth alone, That none can be, as I am now, Thy first whole hope, and all thy own; 38. "With few or none beside the heart To cheer, uphold, and comprehend; With thoughts at which the crowd would start, And grief which they would vainly tend. 39. "Still hope! still act! be sure that life, The source and strength of every good, Wastes down in feeling's empty strife, And dies in dreaming's sickly mood. Green hues that dappled all the glade, Gray rocks that lay in awful sleep. 15. “And over all a sky was spread "And 'mid this sky without a moon Great beaming stars of golden blaze, Like flaming garlands thickly strewn, Filled all the world with pearly rays. 17. "Then o'er my head a sound I knew Of many swift and gentle wings; Sweet airy music o'er me flew, And seemed to wheel in blended rings. 18. "And sooner then than eye could see "Then loud I spake, with swelling voice, To him thy respite give, 42. "Above him poured a blaze of light, And, looking whence it flowed, The boundless form was dazzling bright, The darkness round him glowed. His face with sunlike glory smiled, "No roof was there; the stars of heaven "In circling lines the Angel race, 46. "But Angels' looks were nought to me, Who saw beside me clear My Henry's eyes, that now could ser, And hear my swift and willing choice Nor taught me more to fear. To die that he may live.' 47. "No voice of God or Angel spoke, And I was Henry's own; But when upon my bed I woke, 48. "But still I saw his fondest gaze, PART IX. |