Songs of the Silent World, and Other Poems

A Prayer. (Matins.) An Acknowledgment Hymn Answered Westward Three Friends A New Friend An Etching To my Father The Gates Between A Prayer. (Vespers.)

I.

SONGS OF THE SILENT WORLD.

AFTERWARD.

There is no vacant chair. The loving meet-- A group unbroken--smitten, who knows how? One sitteth silent only, in his usual seat; We gave him once that freedom. Why not now?

Perhaps he is too weary, and needs rest; He needed it too often, nor could we Bestow. God gave it, knowing how to do so best. Which of us would disturb him? Let him be.

There is no vacant chair. If he will take The mood to listen mutely, be it done. By his least mood we crossed, for which the heart must ache, Plead not nor question! Let him have this one.

Death is a mood of life. It is no whim By which life's Giver mocks a broken heart. Death is life's reticence. Still audible to Him, The hushed voice, happy, speaketh on, apart.

There is no vacant chair. To love is still To have. Nearer to memory than to eye, And dearer yet to anguish than to comfort, will We hold him by our love, that shall not die.

For while it doth not, thus he cannot. Try! Who can put out the motion or the smile? The old ways of being noble all with him laid by? Because we love, he is. Then trust awhile.

RELEASED.

Oh, joy of the dying! At last thou art mine. And leaping to meet thee, Impatient to greet thee, A rapid and rapturous, sensitive, fine Gayety steals through my pulses to-day, Daring and doubting like pleasure Forbidden, or Winter looking at May.

Oh, sorrow of living! Make way for the thrill Of the soul that is starting-- Onlooking--departing Across the threshold of clay. Bend, bow to the will Of the soul that is up and away!

THE ROOM'S WIDTH.

I think if I should cross the room, Far as fear; Should stand beside you like a thought-- Touch you, Dear!

Like a fancy. To your sad heart It would seem That my vision passed and prayed you, Or my dream.

Then you would look with lonely eyes-- Lift your head-- And you would stir, and sigh, and say-- "She is dead."

Baffled by death and love, I lean Through the gloom. O Lord of life! am I forbid To cross the room?

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS APART.

The shadows watch about the house; Silent as they, I come. Oh, it is true that life is deaf, And not that death is dumb.

The Christmas thrill is on the earth, The stars throb in the sky. Love listens in a thousand homes,-- The Christmas bells ring by.

I cross the old familiar door And take the dear old chair. You look with desolated eyes Upon me sitting there.

You gaze and see not, though the tears In gazing burn and start. Believe, the living are the blind, Not that the dead depart.

A year ago some words we said Kept sacred 'twixt us twain, 'T is you, poor Love, who answer not, The while I speak again.

I lean above you as before, Faithful, my arms enfold. Oh, could you know that life is numb, Nor think that death is cold!

Senses of earth, how weak ye are! Joys, joys of Heaven how strong! Loves of the earth, how short and sad, Of Heaven how glad and long!

Heart of my heart! if earth or Heaven Had speech or language fine Enough, or death or life could give Me symbol, sound, or sign

To reach you--thought, or touch, or eye, Body or soul--I 'd die Again, to make you understand: My darling! This is I!

THE ANGEL JOY.

Oh, was it a death-dream not dreamed through, That eyed her like a foe? Or only a sorrow left over from life, Half-finished years ago?

How long was it since she died--who told? Or yet what was death--who knew? She said: "I am come to Heaven at last, And I 'll do as the blessed do."

But the custom of earth was stronger than Heaven, And the habit of life than death, How should an anguish as old as thought Be healed by the end of breath?

Tissue and nerve and pulse of her soul Had absorbed the disease of woe. The strangest of all the angels there Was Joy. (Oh, the wretched know!)

"I am too tired with earth," she said, "To rest me in Paradise. Give me a spot to creep away, And close my heavy eyes.

"I must learn to be happy in Heaven," she said, "As we learned to suffer below."-- "Our ways are not your ways," he said, "And ours the ways you go."

As love, too wise for a word, puts by All a woman's weak alarms, Joy hushed her lips, and gathered her Into his mighty arms.

He took her to his holy heart, And there--for he held her fast-- The saddest spirit in the world, Came to herself at last.

"ABSENT!"[1]

You do not lift your eyes to watch Us pass the conscious door; Your startled ear perceiveth not Our footfall on the floor; No eager word your lips betray To greet us when we stand; We throng to meet you, but you hold To us no beckoning hand.

Faint as the years in which we breathed, Far as the death we died, Dim as the faded battle-smoke, We wander at your side; Cold as a cause outlived, or lost, Vague as the legends told At twilight, of a mystic band Circling an Age of Gold.