Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE VIGIL OF AIDEN, SELECTION, by THOMAS HOLLEY CHIVERS



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE VIGIL OF AIDEN, SELECTION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the rosy bowers of aiden
Last Line: There to rest forevermore.
Subject(s): Angels; Death; Future Life; God; Heaven; Dead, The; Retribution; Eternity; After Life; Paradise


IN the Rosy Bowers of Aiden
With her ruby lips love-laden
Dwelt the mild, the modest maiden
Whom Politian calls Lenore.
As the churches, with their whiteness
Clothe the earth with their uprightness,
Clothes she now his soul with brightness,
Breathing out her heart's love-lore;
For her lily limbs so tender,
Like the moon in her own splendor
Seemed all earthly things to render
Bright as Eden was of yore.

Then he cried out broken-hearted,
In this desert world deserted,
Though she had not yet departed,
"Are we not to meet, dear maiden!
In the Rosy Bowers of Aiden,
As we did in days of yore?"
And that modest, mild, sweet maiden,
In the Rosy Bowers of Aiden,
With her lily-lips love-laden
Answered, "Yes! forevermore!"
And the old-time Tower of Aiden
Echoed, "Yes! forevermore!" ...

Then her mother cried, "My daughter!"
As from earth the angels caught her,
She had passed the Stygian water
On the Asphodelian shore! ...

As the lips of that damned Demon,
Like the Syren to the seamen,
With the voice of his dear Leman
Answered, "Never—nevermore!" ..

Through the luminiferous Gihon,
To the Golden City high on
High Eternity's Mount Zion,
God built in the Days of Yore—
To the Golden Land of Goschen,
Far beyond Time's upper ocean,
Where, beholding our devotion,
Float the argent orbs all o'er—
To Avillon's happy Valley,
Where the breezes ever dally
With the roses in each alley—
There to rest forevermore.





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