FRIEND, in whose eyes I looked to-day, Whose hand in clinging clasp held mine, The tender word I could not say That from my heart went forth to thine. So lately all thy life was fair, And bathed in morning's loveliest glow; So lately came the frosty air That laid its choicest blossoms low. Alone by depth of mother-love, I measure depth of mother-loss, And feel how thick the clouds above Thy weary pathway of the cross. Yet sorrow reigns a queen on earth. At many a door, a guest unbid, She lifts the latch; nor less the hearth She darkens when her form is hid From stranger eyes, when asphodels Spring, spear-like, by no new-made grave, Nor gloom of mourning-garment tells How keen a blow her sword-thrust gave. With insight clear I comprehend Thy stricken life that dreads the sun, Thy sleepless nights so slow to end, Thy days that creep in silence on. Still, whether fade the rose of love Before a blighting wind of fate, Or, angel-borne to realms above, It bloom anew at heaven's gate,— If once its fragrance blessed our life, We never wholly lose the past; Its ashes are with sweetness rife, And make us richer to the last. And pain hath gems that purely shine, "Through suffering perfect," graven where They catch the light from Love Divine: Shall we complain, such gems who bear? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MIDNIGHT-BY THE OPEN WINDOW by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE DARK ANGEL by LIONEL PIGOT JOHNSON THE EARL O' QUARTERDECK by GEORGE MACDONALD THE BURDEN OF NINEVEH by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI THE THREE HERMITS by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS SLEEPING BEAUTY by LOUISE VICTORINE ACKERMANN AT A READING by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH FULFILLMENT by CLARIBEL WEEKS AVERY VERSES TO -- --, ON THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR MARRIAGE by BERNARD BARTON |