To see him die, across the waste Every one for his own. The night is starry and cold, my friend, V. How hard he breathes! over the snow The cricket chirps: the light burns low: Shake hands, before you die. Old year, we'll dearly rue for you: VI.. His face is growing sharp and thin. Close up his eyes: tie up his chin: Step from the corpse, and let him in That standeth there alone, And waiteth at the door. There's a new foot on the floor, my friend, To J. S. I. THE wind, that beats the mountain, blows More softly round the open wold, And gently comes the world to those II. And me this knowledge bolder made, III. 'Tis strange that those we lean on most, Those in whose laps our limbs are nursed, Fall into shadow, soonest lost : Those we love first are taken first. IV. God gives us love. Something to love V. This is the curse of time. Alas! In grief I am not all unlearned; Once through mine own doors Death did pass; One went, who never hath returned." VI. He will not smile-not speak to me Once more. Two years his chair is seen Empty before us. That was he Without whose life I had not been. VII. Your loss is rarer; for this star Rose with you through a little arc Of heaven, nor having wandered far, Shot on the sudden into dark. VIII. I knew your brother: his mute dust A man more pure and bold and just IX. I have not looked upon you nigh, X. And though my own eyes fill with dew, Drawn from the spirit through the brain, I will not even preach to you, "Weep, weeping dulls the inward pain." XI. Let Grief be her own mistress still. I will not say XII. "God's ordinance Of Death is blown in every wind;" XIII. His memory long will live alone In all our hearts, as mournful light That broods above the fallen sun, And dwells in heaven half the night. XIV. Vain solace! Memory standing near XV. I wrote I know not what. In truth, XVI. For he too was a friend to me: Both are my friends, and my true breast Bleedeth for both; yet it may be That only silence suiteth best. XVII. Words weaker than your grief would make Grief more. "Twere better I should cease Although myself could almost take The place of him that sleeps in peace : XVIII. Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace: XIX. Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet. Sleep full of rest from head to feet; Lie still, dry dust, secure of change. "YOU ASK ME, WHY, THOUGH ILL AT EASE.” You ask me, why, though ill at ease, Whose spirits falter in the mist, And languish for the purple seas? It is the land that freemen till, That sober-suited Freedom chose, The land where, girt with friends or foes, A man may speak the thing he will; A land of settled government, A land of just and old renown, Where Freedom broadens slowly down From precedent to precedent: Where faction seldom gathers head, Should banded unions persecute When single thought is civil crime, Though Power should make from land to land The name of Britain trebly greatThough every channel of the State Should almost choke with golden sand Yet waft me from the harbor-mouth, "OF OLD SAT FREEDOM ON THE HEIGHTS." OF old sat Freedom on the heights, Above her shook the starry lights: |