IF all the gentlest-hearted friends I know

And make the daylight still a happy thing,And tender voices, to make soft the wind:But if it were not so—if I could findNo love in all this world for comforting,Nor any path but hollowly did ringWhere ‘dust to dust’ the love from life disjoin’d;And if, before those sepulchres unmovingI stood alone (as some forsaken lambGoes…

And, in betwixt the languid ringlets, blownA life-breath, till the forehead hopefullyShines out again, as all the angels see,Before thy saving kiss ! My own, my own,Who camest to me when the world was gone,And I who looked for only God, found thee !I find thee; I am safe, and strong, and glad.As one who…

Against my tremulous hands which loose the stringAnd let them drop down on my knee to-night.This said,- he wished to have me in his sightOnce, as a friend: this fixed a day in springTo come and touch my hand… a simple thing,Yet I wept for it! – this,… the paper’s light…Said, Dear, I love thee;…

From his pretty eyes have sunkenPleasures, to make room for more- –Sleeping near the withered nosegay, which he pulled the day before.Nosegays! leave them for the waking:Throw them earthward where they grew.Dim are such, beside the breakingAmaranths he looks unto- –Folded eyes see brighter colours than the open ever do.Heaven-flowers, rayed by shadows goldenFrom the…

They are leaning their young heads against their mothers—And that cannot stop their tears.The young lambs are bleating in the meadows;The young birds are chirping in the nest;The young fawns are playing with the shadows;The young flowers are blowing toward the west—But the young, young children, O my brothers,They are weeping bitterly!—They are weeping in…

In the noon-sun, with souls that tremble throughTheir happy eyelids from an unaverredYet prodigal inward joy. Behold, I erredIn that last doubt ! and yet I cannot rueThe sin most, but the occasion–that we twoShould for a moment stand unministeredBy a mutual presence. Ah, keep near and close,Thou dovelike help ! and, when my fears…