BUT half a man's days -- and his days were nights. What hearts were ours who loved him, should we pray That night would yield him back to darkling day, Sweet death that soothes, to life that spoils and smites? For now, perchance, life lovelier than the light's That shed no comfort on his weary way Shows him what none may dream to see or say Ere yet the soul may scale those topless heights Where death lies dead, and triumph. Haply there Already may his kindling eyesight find Faces of friends -- no face than his more fair -- And first among them found of all his kind Milton, with crowns from Eden on his hair, And eyes that meet a brother's now not blind. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MOTHER TO SON by IRENE RUTHERFORD MCLEOD IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: PROEM by ALFRED TENNYSON IMPROMPTU LINES ON JULY FOURTH by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS GREENES FUNERALLS: SONNET 11 by RICHARD BARNFIELD POLYHYMNIA: FRAGMENTS by WILLIAM BASSE ON THE DEATH OF MR. JAMES VALENTINE by JAMES HAY BEATTIE THE RING AND THE BOOK: BOOK 8. DOMINUS HYACINTHUS ... by ROBERT BROWNING TO THE LORD FALKLAND, FOR HIS SAFE RETURN FROM ... SCOTS by ABRAHAM COWLEY |