Proem

To Mary And Elizabeth, In Paradise

Proem

1.

THE rainbow oft, on tears of April-tide,
In the sweet week of Easter, we behold;
Its bow of beauty, like the Crucified
Bending from heaven, all nature to enfold
In Love's embrace. Then from that throne of
gold,
'Mid iris-lustres, in the highest sphere,
Seems to bend down its arch of emerolde;
And Paradise, it seemeth very near,
As if the dwellers there perchance our sighs
might hear.

2.
Sweet sisters, in repose ye wear new names,
Yet let me dream ye hearken. Once, in time,
Ye were my muses, and ev'n more than fame's
I courted your applause, in youth's glad prime,
When oft ye listened to my boyish rhyme
With eyes that shone, as now they shine in
bliss.
Ah, borne too early to abodes sublime,
Fain would I know ye take it not amiss
Though angels' songs ye hear to list a lay like
this.

3.
Ye cannot hear my later songs, alas !
Ye dearest ones that deign'd to praise my first :
So grieved the Weimar poet, in the glass
Of memory gazing on fair forms that nurst
His young adventure, ere its blossoms burst
In fancy's flowers and fragrance. Such my
thought
When for these songs, my last perchance my
worst,
I coveted your ear. Yet are they fraught
With His dear Name of Names, who our redemp-
tion bought.

4.
We grew together, lov'd by one whose pride
Watched o'er the budding of your loveliness ;
Nor knew we, for too soon, alas ! ye died,
All that he wrought our tender years to
bless,
Mingling wise counsel with his fond caress.
Wisdom and wit were his, and nature gave
His manly heart a maiden's tenderness;
And Christian hope adorns his lowly grave,
Where, on the field he fell, Christ's soldier, true
and brave.


5.
Nor less, while your sweet life was link'd with
mine,
I shared her love, who o'er your cradle bent
And trained your earliest thought to thoughts
divine:
For oft to me her kindly care was lent
In words of cheer, with gentle warning blent,
When to the poet's shell I tuned my youth.
She loved all arts the soul that ornament,
And wing'd her nestlings, like young birds for-
sooth,
To soar aloft betimes and bask in light and truth.

6.
We parted, where the snow-peaks all aglow
Shone like an opal, and the setting sun
Flamed o'er the Pyrenees, in pleasant Pau,
Along the vale where restless Gave doth run :
And as we gazed, each an enraptured one,
Tvvas well we heard no voices, save our own ;
For seem'd our life beginning when 'twas
done;
And with that sunset, oh ! forever flown
Are joys so long we knew, and hopes no longer
known.

7.
Yet may I glean a moral from that day
Of parting, and its light o'er mount and glen,
For in the Sun's own clime, the poets say
He reigns at sunset, wears no crown till then.
So goes the adage, too, of meaner men ;
The end crowns labor. Welcome life's soft
eve
Who sings the Resurrection cries Amen,
As lengthening shadows mark the hour to leave
This life's deceitful scene, for scenes that ne'er
deceive.

8.
Ev'n as a bird forgets its wonted note
When death o'ershades its bower, and comes
no more
The smile that seemed upon its song to dote,
So when ye slept, my listless hand gave o'er
And lost its cunning; for I grieved heart-sore,
Tuneless my shell and unfulfilled my dream.
Now, faith reproacheth that I thus forbore;
Wake, languid shell nor moan, by Babel's stream;
Wake, from the willows wake, to Faith's trans-
porting theme.

9.
Yes, wake my soul, in swan-like notes to sing
Of that blest home, where, nevermore to die,
To them that slept comes Life's eternal spring,
Where Love enthron'd all human tears shall
dry,
Hearts claim their kin and brightens eye to eye.
Sweet sisters, ye are safe. For me, how rife
Perils of conflict, ev'n as years draw nigh
That bring the grateful furlough after strife,
And shines our even-star, the dawn of deathless
life.