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LIFE AND DEATH.
A REMEMBRANCE.
Do not think of her with death.What is life? This fluttering breath
Here a moment, gone for aye,
Lost 'twixt now and yesterday?
Life, ah fool! 'tis all divine.
Not this gasp of yours or mine
Prisoned in a mortal form,
Racked with fever, spent with storm.
'Tis a quenchless flame from Him
Who created seraphim;
Bade his creature earth renew,
Ever to its cycle true,
Leaf and blossom from their grave,
Though the winter howl and rave.
What if buds be iron-bound
Deep within the barren ground?
There the life doth lie asleep
Till the spring rains o'er it weep.
Then it rises; flood nor fire,
Fiendish wrath, nor man's desire,
That free spark extinguisheth,
Nor the dark that men call death.
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Whence her glad soul hath arisen,
Lieth in the dust to-day,
Since she would no longer stay.
Do it honor, for it held her;
Through its dimness we beheld her;
Underneath its feebleness,
Guessing some sublime redress,
Yet to free that heavenly shape,
So to Heaven it might escape.
In the pure gleam of her eye,
In her laugh's frank verity,
On the tablet broad and fair
'Neath the tendrils of her hair,
Life immortal set its seal.
Dust no more could dare reveal,
Lest its strong and glorious shining
Filled us with divine repining,
Made us mad to quit the strife
And the longing men call life.
Lovely soul! Few days divide
Us, thy kindred, from thy side.
Lovely clay! What death can ever
Tender thoughts from thee dissever?
Rest, till God's prevailing spring
From his holiest garden bring,
With the violet and the rose,
Thy new fashion, and disclose,
In that resurrection hour,
All the hidings of his power.
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Free from shade of grief or pain;
And the triumph of that brow
Tell us Life is victor now.
Life that rules, and reigns, and is
God and God's eternities.
Speed the day and haste the night!
Death is darkness. Life is light.
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