| |
COLDLY, sadly descends | |
| The autumn evening. The field | |
| Strewn with its dank yellow drifts | |
| Of withered leaves, and the elms, | |
| Fade into dimness apace, | 5 |
| Silent;—hardly a shout | |
| From a few boys late at their play! | |
| The lights come out in the street, | |
| In the school-room windows; but cold, | |
| Solemn, unlighted, austere, | 10 |
| Through the gathering darkness, arise | |
| The Chapel walls, in whose bound | |
| Thou, my father! art laid. | |
| |
| There thou dost lie, in the gloom | |
| Of the autumn evening. But ah! | 15 |
| That word gloom to my mind | |
| Brings thee back in the light | |
| Of thy radiant vigor again! | |
| In the gloom of November we passed | |
| Days not of gloom at thy side; | 20 |
| Seasons impaired not the ray | |
| Of thine even cheerfulness clear. | |
| Such thou wast; and I stand | |
| In the autumn evening, and think | |
| Of bygone autumns with thee. | 25 |
| |
| Fifteen years have gone round | |
| Since thou arosest to tread, | |
| In the summer morning, the road | |
| Of death, at a call unforeseen, | |
| Sudden. For fifteen years, | 30 |
| We who till then in thy shade | |
| Rested as under the boughs | |
| Of a mighty oak, have endured | |
| Sunshine and rain as we might, | |
| Bare, unshaded, alone, | 35 |
| Lacking the shelter of thee. | |
| |
| O strong soul, by what shore | |
| Tarriest thou now? For that force, | |
| Surely, has not been left vain! | |
| Somewhere, surely, afar, | 40 |
| In the sounding labor-house vast | |
| Of being, is practised that strength, | |
| Zealous, beneficent, firm! | |
| |
| Yes, in some far-shining sphere, | |
| Conscious or not of the past, | 45 |
| Still thou performest the word | |
| Of the Spirit in whom thou dost live, | |
| Prompt, unwearied, as here! | |
| Still thou upraisest with zeal | |
| The humble good from the ground, | 50 |
| Sternly repressest the bad. | |
| Still, like a trumpet, dost rouse | |
| Those who with half-open eyes | |
| Tread the border-land dim | |
| ’Twixt vice and virtue; reviv’st, | 55 |
| Succorest;—this was thy work, | |
| This was thy life upon earth. * * * * * | |
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