CLOSE, CLOSE BY AIDENN’S HAPPY PORTALS
Close, close by Aidenn’s happy portals
My tent is pitched forevermore,[2]
Through which to join the bright immortals,
My loved and lost have gone before.
In noontide trance and starry dream
Their forms transfigured oft I see;
Though Death’s cold river flows between,
Their gentle whispers come to me.
And Aidenn’s walls I see in dreams,
Its shining turrets golden-tiled;
But swiftly fade their lovely gleams,
And leave behind a longing wild.
There cleansed and pure from earthly stain,
Full many a martyred spirit dwells,
Through fire and wrong that did attain
Those far celestial citadels.
Ye white-robed warders, strong and bright,
That on those shining summits stand,
Entreat for me the Prince of Light,
That I may reach his happy land.
[2] The idea in the first four lines of this piece was borrowed from a beautiful passage occurring in a biographical sketch of a late distinguished poet.