MY arms are empty, and my eyes, That cannot see her little face, Look on the world in dull surprise To find it such a dreary place. What wonder that her rosy feet Turned from the earthly path they trod, Faltered, and found the starry street, The rainbow way that leads to God? With smiling lips she tried to frame A word of parting or of prayer They only dimpled to my name, And smiled again, and rested there. Within the hollow of my breast, Where once my heart beat fervently, A chapel I have reared and blest And there enshrined her memory. Only white thoughts may enter here, To scatter incense sweet and faint, Kneel with the priest who worships near, Or serve the altar of my saint. Love is the priest, and night and day, With folded wings and drooping head, He kneels before the shrine to pray, And whisper masses for the dead. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SENSE OF DIRECTION by KAREN SWENSON EPITAPH ON THE LADY MARY VILLIERS [OR VILLERS] (1) by THOMAS CAREW THE STORY OF URIAH by RUDYARD KIPLING THE REVENGE OF HAMISH by SIDNEY LANIER THE ONE LOST by ISAAC ROSENBERG THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 72. THE CHOICE (2) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI |