Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BEREFT, by JAMES RYDER RANDALL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BEREFT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Though heaven has gained one angel more
Last Line: Gaze through the gates of paradise.
Subject(s): Death - Children; Mothers; Sons; Death - Babies


THOUGH heaven has gained one angel more,
My heart, dear God, is wondrous sore;
For that bright angel Thou hast won
Was my sweet lamb, my only son.

How shall an earthly mother bear
Such awful anguish and dispair?
How shall she live, and living, know
Such depths of overwhelming woe?

Without Thy aid, dear God, my soul
Is shipwrecked in a sea of dole;
Without Thy rescuing hand, I sink
Beyond the world's abysmal brink.

He was my pride, my hope, my joy—
Ah, bitterest though, my only boy!
And now, while night-winds madly rave,
My heart is buried in his grave.

Too much I worshiped him, perchance
Too much I drifted from Thy glance.
Thou art a jealous God, and Thou
Hast put Thy crown upon my brow.

I pass beneath Thy rod; I pray
To find salvation's thorny way—
I care not by what pangs beguiled,
So it but lead me to my child.

Ah, blesséd thought to know that he
Is safe from sin and misery;
That, in the young May of his life,
He fell unsullied in the strife.

I treasure up his image fair,
I kiss his tress of shining hair,
Thrilling to hope, in heaven, that he
Will be "the first to welcome me."

Within Thy sheltering arms, I place
My idol, glorified by grace;
And, with the dear ones left, my eyes
Gaze through the gates of Paradise.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net