'Twas not a scene that lovers choose,
Did any say that we had loved,
The dead was by us, yet we knew,
That we were living and beloved,
Truth's talisman was on each heart
Oh was there sin in what we said,
The troubles told, the truth confessed,
The night we watched beside the dead."
Aimee, look at this jewel rich, I have worn it the live long day,
You think I value it, so I do, yet I deem it worthless clay,
Compared with the other jewel rare, this Keystone brought to me,
Bright gem, long hidden but not destroyed in some unfathomed sea,
More honorable than golden fleece, more precious than the stone,
That alchemysts seek vainly for, or gems of a regal crown,
A Keystone brought to light once more, all uninjured by the storm,
The rains of fire that have swept round my other jewel's form,
For the fire doth but clear the dross, the waves but wash the dust,
From off the jewels of purest gold, such jewels I hold in trust,
For I should have claimed you still as mine, if we never more had met,
Till free from stain of sorrow or sin we stand where hope's suns ne'er set,
Where angels live on, in their life of love, unchanged yet ever new,
And then the time, God's own right time would have come for my taking you,
For this re-union upon earth, is the sign, beloved wife
Of the eternal rest we'll share in the bright hereafter life;
For have we not assurance blest, that whichever first goes home,
Will await with loving patience, till the other one shall come,
Unto those who wear God's blessed seal upon each united heart,
Those words must half their horror lose 'until death do you part,'
For true love doth dissolve death's power, as spring's suns melt the snow,
'Tis the only password at the gates, through which we both must go,
Where born of that benevolence which fills our Father's breast,
Angelic masons now prepare our special house of rest,
God's promises will never fail, if we but wait His hours,
He sends His messages of peace, like His rainbow after showers,
O'er one beam of that holy arch, this scroll now seems to glide,
"After the dark and dreary day, it shall be light at eventide."
Miscellaneous Pieces
Mist and Sunshine.
I looked, and the mist had hidden
Streamlet and gorge and mountain,
Mansion and church had vanished away,
No trace of tree or fountain.
Mist, on the roof where birdlings wake
The strains of old love stories,
Mist, like tears on the roses' cheek,
In cups of the morning glories.
"Ah, like life, 'said my heart to me,'
Only a world of sorrow,
The lips you love, the hands you clasp,
Are cold and strange to-morrow.
Mists on the stream of by-gone days,
Where are your childhood bowers?
Mists on the path of coming years.
Where are your household flowers?"
I looked again; a sunbeam bright
Had shot through the heavy mist;
It drew the rose to its glowing breast,
And the morning glories kissed.
The spire of the Ascension Church
Flashed out like St. 'Michael's sword,
When girt with glowing armor, he
Doeth battle for his Lord.
Each moment some high roof or tower,
Some flush of the maple leaves,
Grew fair to sight, the birdlings sang
In nests on the sun-lit eaves;
And Nature bathed in living light,
As if she renewed her birth,
The Universal Father smiled
Through his sunbeam, on the earth.
"Ah, now my heart, so sad and cold
With mists of its repining,
What will thou say to see once more
The cloud with silver lining?"
Source of light! when I leave this sphere,
Grant me a vision like this,
Mists and shadows rolling away
From the Paradise of bliss.