Poems (Edwards)/To an Afflicted Mother
TO AN AFFLICTED MOTHER.
I stand on the spot where thy loved one is sleeping, With the cold clammy dust on his beautful brow;And the dark trees around him like sad mourners keeping Close watch o'er the form that has mouldered ere now;The last tint of day in the clear west is beaming, The first ray of moonlight steals o'er the blue hills,Through the dark waving pines in its wild beauty gleaming, 'Till my heart with hushed rapture and gratitude thrills.
The first star of eve on the sky is reclining, Reflecting its light on yon beautiful wave,Through the soft hazy clouds like an angel's eye shining, Lighting up, with strange beauty, thy child's forest grave;The winds, in wild murmurs, around me are pealing, Displacing the light leaves that shrink from my tread,Around his lone grave like a watcher they are stealing With muffled up feet, that they wake not the dead.
Sad mourner thy heart has been fearfully riven, The dearest of ties from thy breast has been torn.But look far above thee a promise is given, Of peace and of comfort to spirits that mourn.Thy beautiful child from thy heart has been taken, To bind thee yet closer and closer to God;Thrice blessed are they who, by affliction, when shaken, Pass, meekly and patiently, under the rod.
And so hast thou passed; but a world is above thee Where the waves of affliction can touch thee no more,Where the child thou hast lost will be there still to bless thee, Where sickness and sorrow and parting are o'er;Yes, there thou shalt fold to thy desolate bosom That spirit so early recalled to the skies,Where flowers of beauty eternally blossom, And the love of the heart never withers or dies.