On a Mourner

Nature, so far as in her lies,

Imitates God, and turns her face

To every land beneath the skies,

Counts nothing that she meets with base,

But lives and loves in every place;

Fills out the homely quickset-screens,

And makes the purple lilac ripe,

Steps from her airy hill, and greens

The swamp, where humm'd the dropping snipe,

With moss and braided marish-pipe;

And on thy heart a finger lays,

Saying, "Beat quicker, for the time

Is pleasant, and the woods and ways

Are pleasant, and the beech and lime

Put forth and feel a gladder clime."

And murmurs of a deeper voice,

Going before to some far shrine,

Teach that sick heart the stronger choice,

Till all thy life one way incline,

With one wide will that closes thine.

And when the zoning eve has died

Where yon dark valleys wind forlorn,

Come Hope and Memory, spouse and bride,

From out the borders of the morn,

With that fair child betwixt them born.

And when no mortal motion jars

The blackness round the tombing sod,

Thro' silence and the trembling stars

Comes Faith from tracts no feet have trod,

And Virtue, like a household god

Promising empire; such as those

Once heard at dead of night to greet

Troy's wandering prince, so that he rose

With sacrifice, while all the fleet

Had rest by stony hills of Crete.