FROM a bright hearth-stone of our land, A beam hath pass'd away, A smile, whose cheering influence seem'd Like morning to the day; A sacrificing spirit With innate goodness fraught, That ever for another's weal Employ'd its fervid thought. That beam is gather'd back again To the Pure Fount of flame, That smile the Blessed Source hath found, From whence its radiance came, -- That spirit hath a genial clime; And yet, methinks, 't will bend Sometimes, amid familiar haunts, Beside the mourning friend. Yet better 't were to pass away, Ere evening shadows fell, To wrap in chillness, and decay, What here was loved so well; And strew unwither'd flowers around, When the last footsteps part, And leave in every nook of home, Sweet memories for the heart. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A BANJO SONG by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON SONNET: 16. TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL, MAY 1652 by JOHN MILTON ESTRANGEMENT by WILLIAM WATSON SESTET SENT TO A FRIEND WITH A VOLUME OF TENNYSON by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH CYNTHIA SLEEPING IN A GARDEN; A SONNET by PHILIP AYRES A FAIRY TALE by PHILIP JAMES BAILEY BLEAKE'S HOUSE IN BLACKMWORE by WILLIAM BARNES YOU DON'T BELIEVE by WILLIAM BLAKE THE GOLDEN ODES OF PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA: TARAFA by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |