THE SPIRIT HOW blue the sky is and how sweet the air! Sister, is this a meadow where we stray? See where the blossoms break, and over there Surely a bird is singing. Yesterday I had not thought that Heaven was like this. THE ANGEL Now was it yesterday? THE SPIRIT I only know I have gone gently on from bliss to bliss; I am too glad for laughter; nay, I grow Silent from very peace of comforting. Yet, sometimes, like a memory of pain, A shadow of a grief, there seems to sting A vague, insistent sorrow, like a strain Of some lost melody that haunts and stays. THE ANGEL Men call it "Fear o' Death." THE SPIRIT A thing less rife With fear it is, yet keener. THE ANGEL In the ways Of little earth men call it "Love o' Life." THE SPIRIT "Men call it 'Love o' Life'." Perchance so, I May not remember. Now the bird has ceased, How still it is! How bluer than the sky These blossoms are! THE ANGEL Our feet bend not the least Light petal of them. Nay, why stay you, sweet? THE SPIRIT @3Once I knew eyes as blue -- I wonder where!@1 Why, as I bent just now they seemed to meet My own again, and sudden strangely bare And empty seemed my arms! What means this thing? THE ANGEL I may not say. THE SPIRIT I am so happy -- yet Something within me seems to turn and cling To some past joy I might not quite forget. Hark! Heard you nothing then? THE ANGEL I heard not, I. Perchance a bird sang. THE SPIRIT Ah, it was not gay. So sad it was -- a little wistful cry, A little cry from very far away, So weak, so pitiful. O, I would go Where the voice calls me! THE ANGEL Sweet, it may not be. THE SPIRIT Hark! there it comes again. Ah, heard you? THE ANGEL No. Turn and forget. Are you not happy? See Where the path leads to newer, lovelier things That you have yet to find. Nay, touch my hand. THE SPIRIT O, must I follow? THE ANGEL As a bird that wings Its way from height to height, from touch of land To the blue distances of joy we go. THE SPIRIT How beautiful it is! How bright the way! I know not what it was that hurt me so A moment since. THE ANGEL And are you happy? THE SPIRIT Yea, With a new peace, a comfort that was not All mine before. Sister, what means it, say? THE ANGEL That God is good and you have quite forgot. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DEATH'S JEST-BOOK: DIRGE FOR WOLFRAM by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES A HYMN [TO THE NAME AND] IN HONOR OF SAINT TERESA by RICHARD CRASHAW WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME by PATRICK SARSFIELD GILMORE THE VISION (1) by ROBERT HERRICK OF THE MANNER OF ADDRESSING CLOUDS by WALLACE STEVENS A PRAYER FOR A VERY NEW ANGEL by VIOLET ALLEYN STOREY |