Poems (Thaxter)/Sorrow
For works with similar titles, see Sorrow.
SORROW,
Upon my lips she laid her touch divine, And merry speech and careless laughter died;She fixed her melancholy eyes on mine, And would not be denied.
I saw the west-wind loose his cloudlets white In flocks, careering through the April sky,I could not sing though joy was at its height, For she stood silent by.
I watched the lovely evening fade away; A mist was lightly drawn across the stars;She broke my quiet dream, I heard her say, "Behold your prison bars!
"Earth's gladness shall not satisfy your soul, This beauty of the world in which you live,The crowning grace that sanctifies the whole, That, I alone can give."
I heard and shrank away from her afraid; But still she held me and would still abide;Youth's bounding pulses slackened and obeyed, With slowly ebbing tide.
"Look thou beyond the evening star," she said, "Beyond the changing splendors of the day;Accept the pain, the weariness, the dread, Accept and bid me stay!"
I turned and clasped her close with sudden strength, And slowly, sweetly, I became awareWithin my arms God's angel stood at length, White-robed and calm and fair.
And now I look beyond the evening star, Beyond the changing splendors of the day,Knowing the pain He sends more precious far, More beautiful, than they.