Page:Poems Proctor.djvu/265

Break into blossom, O prairies,
 Snowy and golden and red!
Peers of the Palestine lilies
 Heap for your Glorious Dead!
Roses as fair as of Sharon,
 Branches as stately as palm,
Odors as rich as the spices—
 Cassia and aloes and balm—
Mary the loved and Salome,
 All with a gracious accord,
Ere the first glow of the morning
 Brought to the tomb of the Lord.

Wind of the west! breathe round him
 Soft as the saddened air's sigh,
When to the summit of Pisgah
 Moses had journeyed to die;
Clear as its anthem that floated
 Wide o'er the Moabite plain,
Low with the wail of the people
 Blending its burdened refrain.
Rarer, O wind! and diviner,—
 Sweet as the breeze that went by,
When, over Olivet's mountain,
 Jesus was lost in the sky.

Not for thy sheaves nor savannas .
 Crown we thee, proud Illinois!
Here in his grave is thy grandeur;
 Born of his sorrow thy joy.