 | Vigil and vision |  |
77
OUR DEAD.
1.
OF those we've loved and lost too well we knowThat they are gone to come again no more,
That, in no future sky, no foreign shore,
The lapsing years to us again shall show
Their dear-beloved shapes of long ago:
We know that none of those who're gone before
Came ever back at Death's relentless door;
And yet we cannot let our darlings go.
Nor do we think that all in them we knew,
Which made them dear, by which themselves they were,
Eyes, lips, hands, voice, breath, bosom, forehead, hair,
Not only back to earth, fire, water, air,
But, wrought in Nature's crucible anew,
Are gone to make earth green and heaven blue.
2.
If we could follow them where they are gone,How should our lips their lips press in the rose?
How should our arms upon the wind-wafts close,
Our eyes with theirs in green of wood and lawn,
Our hands commingle in the flush of dawn?
When we, as they, of life, its joys and woes,
Are free, far scattered to each breath that blows,
No longer held of flesh and blood in pawn,
Loosed from the let of hope, joy, doubt and pain,
Each atom of us free to fare and blend
With winds and waters, flowers and sun and rain,
Then may we look to be with them again;
And nothing will it profit us till then
But to endure with patience to the end.
| Vigil and vision | |