GIFTED, and loved and praised By every friend; Never a murmur raised Against him, to the end! With tireless interest He wrought as he thought best, -- And -- lo, we bend Where now he takes his rest! His heart was loyal, to Its latest thrill, To the home-loves he knew -- And now forever will, -- Mother and brother -- they The first to pass away, -- And, lingering still, The sister bowed to-day. Pure as a rose might be, And sweet, and white, His father's memory Was with him day and night: -- He spoke of him, as one May now speak of the son, -- Sadly and tenderly, Yet as a trump had done. Say, then, of him: He knew Full depths of care And stress of pain, and you Do him scant justice there, -- Yet in the lifted face Grief left not any trace, Nor mark unfair, To mar its manly grace. It was as if each day Some new hope dawned -- Each blessing in delay, To him, was just beyond; Between whiles, waiting, he Drew pictures cunningly -- Fantastic -- fond -- Things that we laughed to see. Sometimes, as we looked on His crayon's work, Some angel-face would dawn Out radiant, from the mirk Of features old and thin, Or jowled with double-chin, And eyes asmirk, And gaping mouths agrin. That humor in his art, Of genius born, Welled warmly from a heart That could not but adorn All things it touched with love -- The eagle, as the dove -- The burst of morn -- The night -- the stars above. Sometimes, amid the wild Of faces queer, A mother, with her child Pressed warm and close to her; This, I have thought, somehow, The wife, with head abow, Unreconciled, In the great shadow now. . . . . . . . O ye of sobbing breath, Put by all sighs Of anguish at his death -- Turn -- as he turned @3his@1 eyes, In that last hour, unknown In strange lands, all alone -- Turn thine eyes toward the skies, And, smiling, cease thy moan. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOHENGRIN; PROEM by EMMA LAZARUS PSALM 139 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THAT NATURE IS A HERACLITEAN FIRE & OF THE COMFORT OF THE RESURRECTION by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS THE WINGED WORSHIPPERS; ADDRESSED TO TWO SWALLOWS .. DURING SERVICE by CHARLES SPRAGUE PSALM 137 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |