If we could know the silent shapes that pass Across our lives, we should perchance have seen God's Messenger with dusky pinions lean Above the cot, and scan as in the glass Of some clear forest water, framed in grass, The likeness of his own seraphic mien; And heard the call, implacably serene, Of Him who is, who will be, and who was. Oh Azrael, why tookest thou the child 'Neath thy great wings, that lock as in a vice, From all that is alive and warm and fond, To where a rayless sun that never smiled Looks down on his own face in the pale ice Of vast and lifeless seas in the Beyond? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GOD AND MY COUNTRY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS PASSION AND LOVE by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 23. LOVE'S BAUBLES by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI HAVE YOU PLANTED A TREE? by HENRY ABBEY LILIES: 2. MY SWORD by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) NEW YORK HARBOR by PARK BENJAMIN |