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TO AN EARLY FRIEND.
Yet well for us that there
We dwelt awhile! oh, well for us to make
Acquaintance soon with all things glad and fair;
To have them for our earliest friends! to take
These playmates to our bosoms ere more stern
Companions meet us, for they oft return
And hold us by the hand, and for the sake
Of Eden love us! Now its Angel knows
Our faces through all change, and oft from far
Hath smiled upon us kind; he will not close
The gate so surely, but that Love ajar
Hath held it for a space, and Dreams aside
Have turned the Flaming Sword, and been our Guide
O'er half-forgotten tracks; and on the wind,
Like kisses blown upon it, greetings kind
Send whispers after us, to half recall
Half-presage glories, that no Primal Fall
Hath robbed us of; for Heaven had been less near
Had we not gazed up to it through the clear
Calm eastern skies, that, waking or asleep,
Bent o'er us in our childhood like a deep
Unvexed, unfathomed sea, when it was Prayer
To know, that day and night upon us there
Our Father's eyes looked down;
We dwelt awhile! oh, well for us to make
Acquaintance soon with all things glad and fair;
To have them for our earliest friends! to take
These playmates to our bosoms ere more stern
Companions meet us, for they oft return
And hold us by the hand, and for the sake
Of Eden love us! Now its Angel knows
Our faces through all change, and oft from far
Hath smiled upon us kind; he will not close
The gate so surely, but that Love ajar
Hath held it for a space, and Dreams aside
Have turned the Flaming Sword, and been our Guide
O'er half-forgotten tracks; and on the wind,
Like kisses blown upon it, greetings kind
Send whispers after us, to half recall
Half-presage glories, that no Primal Fall
Hath robbed us of; for Heaven had been less near
Had we not gazed up to it through the clear
Calm eastern skies, that, waking or asleep,
Bent o'er us in our childhood like a deep
Unvexed, unfathomed sea, when it was Prayer
To know, that day and night upon us there
Our Father's eyes looked down;
"Our Father!" First
And Last in Love's blest language! we were nurst
Within Thy breast, Thy sapphire floor for roof
Was over us; and now less far aloof
We view Thy awful Throne, that then we played
Beneath Thy footstool, and were not afraid!
And Last in Love's blest language! we were nurst
Within Thy breast, Thy sapphire floor for roof
Was over us; and now less far aloof
We view Thy awful Throne, that then we played
Beneath Thy footstool, and were not afraid!
