This seems to identify the time to be Christmas, 1833, as Hallam died on 15th September, 1833, but was not buried until January, 1834.
They comfort themselves with the conviction that the dead retain “their mortal sympathy,” and still feel with those they have left behind. The soul, a “keen seraphic flame,” pierces
“From orb to orb, from veil to veil,”
and so traverses the universe.
Was the anniversary of our Saviour’s birth ever hailed in terms more sublime and beautiful!
“Rise, happy morn, rise, holy morn,
Draw forth the cheerful day from night:
O Father, touch the east, and light
The light that shone when Hope was born.”
XXXI.
The mind of the poet has now taken a more strictly religious view of the situation; and he would like to learn the secrets of the grave from the experience of Lazarus.
Did Lazarus in death yearn to hear his sister Mary weeping for him? If she asked him, when restored to life, where he was during his four days of entombment;