Poems (Hooper)/Imploro Pacem
IMPLORO PACEM.
With falt'ring step and weary heart I come, O mother Earth! one boon from thee to crave:The aching brain and troubled soul would rest. Give me a grave.
On thy kind bosom I would lay my head, Never to ope my heavy eyes againUpon this world, whose boons to me have been Sorrow and pain.
Life's noontide burns above me, and I shrink From the long; thorny path I still must tread;Room for me, mother, 'mid thy best-loved sons— The happy dead!
Ope thy green mantle! hush thy weary child Into thy slumber, dewy, dreamless, deep,O thou! who, like the Psalmist's God, doth give Thy loved one sleep!