That clime is not like this dull clime of ours; All, all is brightness there; A sweeter influence breathes around its flowers, And a benigner air. No calm below is like that calm above, No region here is like that realm of love; Earth's softest spring, ne'er shed so soft a light! Earth's brightest summer never shone so bright. That sky is not like this sad sky of ours, Tinged with earth's change and care; No shadow dims it, and no rain cloud lowers; No broken sunshine there: One everlasting stretch of azure pours Its stainless splendor o'er those sinless shores; For there Jehovah shines with heavenly ray, And Jesus reigns, dispensing endless day. The dwellers there are not like those of earth, No mortal stain they bear, -- And yet they seem of kindred blood and birth; Whence and how came they there? Earth was their native soil; from sin and shame, Through tribulation, they to glory came; Bond-slaves delivered from sin's crushings load, Brands plucked from burning by the hand of God. Yon robes of theirs are not like those below; No angel's half so bright; Whence came that beauty, whence that living glow, And whence that radiant white? Washed in the blood of the atoning Lamb, Fair as the light these robes of theirs became; And now, all tears wiped off from every eye, They wander where the freshest pastures lie, Through all the nightless day of that unfading sky! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE THANKSGIVING IN BOSTON HARBOR [JUNE 12, 1630] by HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH ON DONNE'S POETRY by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE SONNET: 24. THE STREET by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL POLWART ON THE GREEN by ALLAN RAMSAY MONNA INNOMINATA, A SONNET OF SONNETS: 6 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 10. THE PORTRAIT by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI |