NAY, Sister, nay,but say not so,
For o’er my memory even now
There comes, as if it were a dream,
A train indeed of things that seem
But shadows now, but they were erst
Realities the best, the first.
Say, if thou wilt, this morning’s rose,
That died before the evening’s close,
Was never sweet,or say the sun,
That yesternight in clouds went down,
Was never bright and never shone,
I could believe thee rather so,
Than this strange thing thou tell’st me now.
If never bliss on earth were given,
Then Sister, I have been in Heaven.
For there were days, and days to those,
When every morning sun arose
Upon a scene more brilliant yet
Than that on which the last had set.
If joys went by, they made but room
For those that were in haste to come,
I missed them not,the full stream flowing,
Grew not more shallow for their going.
When day-light came, the first-waked thought
Was welcome to whate’er it brought;
And when it went, I bade it make
All speed to bring my pleasures back;
And if I slept, it was but then
To dream those pleasures o’er again,
And, waking, find that what I dreamed
Was not the shadow it had seemed.
The bird that warbled from the tree
Seemed as it only sung for me,
The rose amid the foliage blushing,
Through shadow’d glades the streamlet rushing,
In Heaven the moon serene and clear,
On earth the landscape wide and fair,
O they were but the wreathed flowers,
The fretwork of those golden hours.
Was it not bliss, when erst I trod
From day to day that thornless road;
Where all I loved were treading too,
And joy and peace were all I knew?
And the eye that beamed in revelry,
Kept e’en the brightest beam for me,
And brows where smiles for ever glowed,
On me the sweetest smile bestowed?
What could I deem it else but bliss,
When chaste affection’s fondest kiss
Smother’d each tear-drop at its birth,
Or ever it had stolen forth;
And every thought that fancy wreathed,
And every note that feeling breathed,
In kindred bosom e’er was heard
Without the aid of voice or word?
Yon ivy that the oak entwines
Seems happy, Sister, while it winds
Its trusting branches round the stock
That guards it from the tempest’s shock,
Yon pretty lambs that lightly bound
And play the daisied meadow round,
And yonder bird with golden wings,
From morn to night that blithely sings,
Through sunny glades and shady groves,
To cheer the toil of her he loves,
Things such as these may taste of bliss:
And, Sister, is there none for us?
And can it be, of all that Heaven
From its creative hand has given,
Of things in air, or earth, or sea,
That man, the first of all, should be
The only thing the world amidst
That never, never can be blest?
Nay,memory tells far other tale,
And tells it all, alas! too well:
For if those moments were not bliss,
Whence are the fearful agonies,
That still the troubled spirit rack
When memory brings those moments back
No aching void had ever chilled
A bosom that had ne’er been filled;
Nor heart, with hopeless sorrow wasted,
Broke for a bliss it never tasted.
No, Sister,had there e’er been none,
I had not now to say ” ‘Tis gone.”
“Gone!” Thou art answered,If ’tis so,
The boasted bliss of earth must go,
What though it held enchantment’s powers,
It is not meet for hearts like ours.
They do not go,the silent tread
Of moments stealing o’er our head,
Leaves the immortal spirit’s growth
Still rising in eternal youth;
Destin’d for ever to survive
The waste of all that earth can give.
Say, is it bliss to-day to feed,
And starve to-morrow on our need?
To have at morn and lose at night,
And grasp to-day the fond delight
Our eager spirits doat upon,
And then, to-morrow, say ’tis gone?
The wish, the hope, the feelings stay,
While the joys they live on pass away,
The hunger stays when the feast is done,
The love remains when the lov’d are gone;
And, Sister, can it satisfy,
To see our treasur’d joys go by,
And know their hard bequest but this,
A pang proportion’d to our bliss.
(Caroline Fry)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, World Poems, Night Poems, Mind Poems, Sadness Poems, Nature Poems, War & Peace Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Youth Poems, Heaven PoemsBased on Keywords: bequest, doat, entwines, daisied, thornless, treasur, day-light, fretwork, gothe