 | The poetical works of Lucy Larcom |  |
IMMORTAL YEARS.
They come, they linger with us, and they go—
The lovely years!
Into our hearts we feel their beauty grow;
Through them the meaning of our life we know,
Its joys, its fears.
The lovely years!
Into our hearts we feel their beauty grow;
Through them the meaning of our life we know,
Its joys, its fears.
They whom God sent us, robed in sacred light,
Out of His sky,
With snow and roses, stars and sunbeams bright,—
Too beautiful they must be in His sight,
Ever to die.
Out of His sky,
291
Too beautiful they must be in His sight,
Ever to die.
Though down the long, dim avenues of the Past
Their swift feet fled,
In His eternity the rooms are vast;
There wait they, to be ours again at last:
They are not dead.
Their swift feet fled,
In His eternity the rooms are vast;
There wait they, to be ours again at last:
They are not dead.
Are they not in immortal friendship ours,
Always our own?
Never in vain bloomed one of their sweet flowers,
Whose rose-breath up through blessèd Eden bowers
Climbed to His throne.
Always our own?
Never in vain bloomed one of their sweet flowers,
Whose rose-breath up through blessèd Eden bowers
Climbed to His throne.
Immortal by their sadness, in our thought
That lingers yet;
Their gracious rainbow-smiles, with clouds inwrought;
Their gentleness, that from our errors caught
Shadowy regret.
That lingers yet;
Their gracious rainbow-smiles, with clouds inwrought;
Their gentleness, that from our errors caught
Shadowy regret.
Immortal by their kind austerities
Of storm and frost,
That drove us from our palaces of lies,—
Baseless, unsheltering splendors, that arise
At a soul's cost.
Of storm and frost,
That drove us from our palaces of lies,—
Baseless, unsheltering splendors, that arise
At a soul's cost.
The immortal years,—they are a part of us,
Our life, our breath:
Their sorrows in our eyes hang tremulous;
Ours in a union tender, glorious,
Stronger than death.
Our life, our breath:
Their sorrows in our eyes hang tremulous;
Ours in a union tender, glorious,
Stronger than death.
Poorer or richer, with us they remain
As our own soul;
None shall divorce us from our mutual pain,
Nothing shall take away our common gain,
While ages roll.
As our own soul;
None shall divorce us from our mutual pain,
Nothing shall take away our common gain,
While ages roll.
Out of the years bloom the eternities:
From earth-clogged root
Life climbs through leaf and bud, by slow degrees
Till some far cycle heavenly blossom sees,
And perfect fruit.
From earth-clogged root
Life climbs through leaf and bud, by slow degrees
Till some far cycle heavenly blossom sees,
And perfect fruit.
And nothing dies that ever was alive;
All that endears
And sanctifies the human must survive:
Of God they are, and in His smile they thrive;
The immortal years!
All that endears
And sanctifies the human must survive:
Of God they are, and in His smile they thrive;
The immortal years!
| The poetical works of Lucy Larcom | |