Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN EXTREMIS, by MARCUS S. C. RICKARDS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN EXTREMIS, by                    
First Line: Her eyelids close - we think she sleeps
Last Line: Who reign with him in paradise.
Subject(s): Beauty; Hearts; Heaven; Love; Paradise


HER eyelids close -- we think she sleeps;
But mortal guesses wrong her state:
'Tis that her summoned spirit keeps
Tryst at the Royal gate.
Ere the Key opens, left alone
For all that human cheer can yield,
Till the fair King, the splendid Throne,
The Realm of Glory, are revealed.

See round her ashen lips the trace
Of joy and sadness, like the play
Of light and shade o'er the cold face
Of a December day!
The shadow, born of mists beneath
The brightness, of the Sun above,
Ere chilly Earth's last vapour wreath
Has vanished in unclouded Love.

Now looking back the spirit spans
Life's weary course, from start to goal;
Now gazing wistfully it scans
Heaven's fast unfolding Scroll.
O for a glance at Memory's book
To vision what its record tells!
O to be sharer in the look
That fronts a World where Glory dwells.

Ah! whence the evanescent gloom
That strays around her features wan?
Perhaps she wanders mid the bloom
Of Beauty spent anon.
A gleeful child, she melts in tears,
A dreamy girl, dissolves in sighs,
A woman, feels the care of years,
The failure of some vanished prize.

A lover in some happy dell
Has wooed her -- does she now re-shed
The drops that trickled at the knell
Which tolled him to the dead?
Perchance she mourns her failings few,
For sins who dares to call them now
That Christ has stamped her gold as true,
And left His hall-mark on her brow,

The seal of gloom-dispelling Joy?
For lo! its impress now! what sights,
What sounds, what reveries employ
Her heart, what rare delights?
Is it contrition changed to bliss,
The rapture of a Past forgiven?
Their beckoning smile, their nearing kiss,
Once from her fond home-circle riven?

The pilot Seraphs hovering near
To waft her scatheless -- is it these?
Nay, 'tis His welcome sounding clear,
His step who holds the Keys.
Her lids unclose -- one last bequest,
A faint fond farewell, meets our eyes,
And her pure spirit joins the Blest
Who reign with Him in Paradise.





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