AGAINST the wall a lovely picture hung, So true to life, it wanted but a tongue; 'T was a young girl's — the face, though passing fair, Spoke more of goodness than of beauty there. Years, years had vanished since the limner's power, Stealing the sweetness of a passing hour, Had stamped it there, a little circle's gaze, The fond memorial of departed days. Years, years had vanished — where was she whose face Still from that canvass smiled in girlhood's grace? A coffin stood beside — I raised the lid — Alas! another picture there was hid; What hard, stern hand those pallid features drew? That cheek, that brow — so false, and yet so true? 'T was she — the same — @3there@1 in her maiden bloom, @3Here@1 cold in death, and waiting for the tomb. A gray-haired man leaned o'er her where she slept, Then to the living likeness turned — and wept; Children, fond, grieving children, looked within, As if their love one answering look might win; Vain hope! the eye was dark, and dull the ear That never, till that hour, refused to hear; Hushed, even to them, forever hushed the tongue, On whose sweet lessons they so long had hung. Turn, mourners, from that face; it tells of gloom; Around it draw the curtain of the tomb; Look on this breathing picture of her youth, See where it smiles, in beauty and in truth; Like this she lives in her eternal home, That bright abode where sorrow ne'er can come; There, in the likeness that her Maker drew, Ye weeping ones, she waits to welcome you. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BEFORE A PAINTING by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON WHEN MALINDY SINGS by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 74. ST. LUKE THE PAINTER (OLD & NEW ART) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI SONNET: 86 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE HIGHER PANTHEISM by ALFRED TENNYSON |