Two lovers in the strength of life,
Had built a beauteous home,
Where tall, ancestral oaks uprose,
O’ershadowing their high dome.
He was a tall and manly form,
With ringlets dark like night;
But she was like the lily’s stem,
With eyes of moon-like light.
Six happy years they chronicled
Within their nest of bliss;
To taste each day some sweetest joy,
They could not go amiss.
Three little images of them,
Two boys and one a maid,
Beneath those high, ancestral oaks,
With silver laughter, played.
The thunder-blast of war came o’er
The lover’s startled soul;
The wife bowed low her head and heart,
To sorrow’s strong control.
The lady drooped–as droops a flower
Without the sun or rain;
And now at twilight’s hectic flush,
She sang a wild, low strain:
“He’s gone, I cannot smile as when
I saw him at my side!
Ah me! the memory of that hour
When I was his new bride.
“Our two young hearts were joined in love,
As two bright lamps of flame,
Cut off from him, life is to me
A mockery and a name.
“God help my helpless little ones,
And keep them for his own.
My heart is breaking–husband! long
Thou shalt not be alone.”
When faded all the autumn flowers
The lady surely died–
Broken the bands that bound her life
To him–his wife and bride.
Love was the Cause of all things, and the End,
For God is Love, and ever will be Love.
God’s grey-beard prophets sang a future time,
When all would be restored in love to God,
And the first Eden be rebuilt on earth;
That lions and all lambs should play together,
On the long grass of Eden’s greenest lawns.
That man should yet behold that happy scene,
When one loud jubilate of worship–love–
Should climb the heavens from each lone shore of earth.
(James Avis Bartley)
More Poetry from James Avis Bartley:
James Avis Bartley Poems based on Topics: Love, Soul, Joy & Excitement, Light, Night, Happiness, Flowers, Man, Life, God, Home- Pocahontas (James Avis Bartley Poems)
- The Princess Of Peru (James Avis Bartley Poems)
- Napoleon (James Avis Bartley Poems)
- Elfindale (James Avis Bartley Poems)
- The Lover (James Avis Bartley Poems)
- Australia; Or The New Goldden Age (James Avis Bartley Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, God Poems, Life Poems, Night Poems, Light Poems, Time Poems, Soul Poems, War & Peace Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Name PoemsBased on Keywords: ershadowing, rebuilt, moon-like, chronicled, grey-beard, him-his, thunder-blast, jubilate