THROUGH days of toil, through nightly fears, A vision blessed my heart for years; And so secure its features grew, My heart believed the blessing true. I saw her there, a household dove, In consummated peace of love, And sweeter joy and saintlier grace Breathed o'er the beauty of her face: The joy and grace of love at rest, The fireside music of the breast, When vain desires and restless schemes Sleep, pillowed on our early dreams. Nor her alone: beside her stood, In gentler types, our love renewed; Our separate beings one, in Birth, -- The darling miracles of Earth. The mother's smile, the children's kiss, And home's serene, abounding bliss; The fruitage of a life that bore But idle summer blooms before; Such was the vision, far and sweet, That, still beyond Time's lagging feet, Lay glimmering in my heart for years, Dim with the mist of happy tears. That vision died, in drops of woe, In blotting drops, dissolving slow: Now, toiling day and sorrowing night, Another vision fills my sight. A cold mound in the winter snow; A colder heart at rest below; A life in utter loneness hurled, And darkness over all the world. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CA' THE YOWES TO THE KNOWES' by ISOBEL (ISABEL) PAGAN SISTER HELEN by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI ITYLUS by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE THE SORROW OF LOVE (1) by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS I WOULD NOT LIFT THY VEIL by A. LOUISE ASHWORTH ON PLOUGHING by EVELYN D. BANGAY SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 3. BEAUTY UNLOOKED FOR by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |