Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 451: Volume 18, New Series, August 21, 1852Various
History
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 451: Volume 18, New Series, August 21, 1852
Various
Periodicals
Shred off, like votive locks of hair,
Youth's ornaments of joy and strength,
And cast them in their golden length
The silence of that bier to share.
No tears fell--but a gaze, fixed, long,
That memory might print the face
On the heart's ever-vacant space
With a sun-finger, sharp and strong.
Then kisses, dropping without sound;
And solemn arms wound round the dead;
And lifting from the natural bed
Into the coffin's strange _new_ bound;
Yet still no parting--no belief
In death; no more than we believe
In some dread falsehood that would weave
The world in one black shroud of grief.
And still, unanswered kisses; still,
Warm clingings to the image cold,
With an impossible faith's close fold,
Creative, through its fierce '_I will_.'
Hush, hush! the marble eyelids move;
The kissed lips quiver into breath;
Avaunt, thou ghastly-seeming Death!
Avaunt! We are conquerors--I and Love!
Corse of dead hope, awake, arise!
A living hope, that only slept
Until the tears thus overwept
Had washed the blindness from our eyes.
Come back into the upper day!
Dash off those cerements! Patient shroud,
We'll wrap thee as a garment proud
Round the bright shape we thought was clay.
Clasp, arms! Cling, soul! Eyes, drink anew,
Like pilgrims at a living spring!
Faith, that out-loved this perishing,
May see this resurrection too.
* * * * *
Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh.
Also sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D. N. CHAMBERS, 55 West
Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street,
Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to
MAXWELL & CO., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all
applications respecting their insertion must be made.
End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 451, by Various
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account