I cannot make him dead!
His fair sunshiny head
Is ever bounding round my study-chair;
Yet, when my eyes, now dim
With tears, I turn to him,
The vision vanishes-he is not there!
I walk my parlor floor,
And through the open door
I hear a footfall on the chamber stair;
I ‘m stepping toward the hall
To give the boy a call;
And then bethink me that-he is not there!
I thread the crowded street;
A satchelled lad I meet,
With the same beaming eyes and colored hair:
And, as he ‘s running by,
Follow him with my eye,
Scarcely believing that-he is not there!
I know his face is hid
Under the coffin-lid; 20
Closed are his eyes; cold is his forehead fair;
My hand that marble felt;
O’er it in prayer I knelt;
Yet my heart whispers that-he is not there!
I cannot make him dead!
When passing by the bed,
So long watched over with parental care,
My spirit and my eye
Seek it inquiringly,
Before the thought comes that-he is not there!
When, at the cool, gray break
Of day, from sleep I wake,
With my first breathing of the morning air
My soul goes up, with joy,
To Him who gave my boy,
Then comes the sad thought that-he is not there!
When at the day’s calm close,
Before we seek repose,
I ‘m with his mother, offering up our prayer,
Whate’er I may be saying,
I am, in spirit, praying
For our boy’s spirit, though-he is not there!
Not there! Where, then, is he?
The form I used to see
Was but the raiment that he used to wear;
The grave, that now doth press
Upon that cast-off dress,
Is but his wardrobe locked;-he is not there!
He lives! In all the past
He lives; nor, to the last,
Of seeing him again will I despair;
In dreams I see him now;
And, on his angel brow,
I see it written, “Thou shalt see me there!”
Yes, we all live to God!
Father, thy chastening rod
So help us, thine afflicted ones, to bear,
That, in the spirit-land,
Meeting at thy right hand,
‘T will be our heaven to find that-he is there!
(John Pierpont)
More Poetry from John Pierpont:
John Pierpont Poems based on Topics: God, Fathers, Sadness, Prayers, Mind, Joy & Excitement, Mothers, Fairness, Morning, Past, Thought & Thinking- The Portrait (John Pierpont Poems)
- News-Carrier (John Pierpont Poems)
- Moslem Worship (John Pierpont Poems)
- Hymns and Odes for Temperance Occasions XIV: The Drunkard's Funeral (John Pierpont Poems)
- A Birthday In Scio (John Pierpont Poems)
- To A Friend (John Pierpont Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: God Poems, Mind Poems, Sadness Poems, Faces Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Fairness Poems, Dreams Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Past Poems, Morning Poems, Prayers PoemsBased on Keywords: coffin-lid, spirit-land, inquiringly, that-he