Poems (Welby)/I Know that thy Spirit

by Amelia Welby

"I KNOW THAT THY SPIRIT."

I know that thy spirit looks radiantly down,
 From yon beautiful orb of the blest,
For a sound and a sign have been set in my own,
 That tell of the place of thy rest;
For I gaze on the star that we talked of so oft,
 As our glances would heavenward rove,
When thy step was on earth, and thy bosom was soft
 With a sense of delight and of love.

The dreams, that were laid on thy shadowless brow,
 Were pure as a feeling unborn,
And the tone of thy voice was as pleasant and low
 As a bird's in a pleasant spring morn;
Such a heaven of purity dwelt in thy breast,
 Such a world of bright thoughts in thy soul,
That nought could have made thee more lovely or blest,
 So bright was the beautiful whole.

But now o'er thy breast in the hush of the tomb
 Are folded thy pale graceful arms,
While the midnight of death, like a garment of gloom,
 Hangs over that bosom's young charms!
And pale, pale, alas! is thy rosy lip now,
 Its melody broken and gone,
And cold is the young heart, whose sweet dreams below
 Were of summer, of summer alone.

Yet the rise and the fall of thine eyelids of snow
 O'er their blue orbs so mournfully meek,
And the delicate blush that would vanish and glow
 Through the light of thy transparent cheek,
And thy tresses all put from thy forehead away—
 These, these on my memory rise,
As I gaze on yon bright orb, whose beautiful ray
 Hath so often been blest by thine eyes.

The blue-girdled stars and the soft dreamy air,
 Divide thy fair spirit and mine;
Yet I look in my heart, and a something is there,
 That links it in feeling to thine:
The glow of the sunset, the voice of the breeze,
 As it cradles itself on the sea,
Are dear to my bosom, for moments like these
 Are sacred to memory and thee.