Classic Poem

Through the deep shadows of the darkening years,
She strove with griefs, which oft were agonies, —
The traitorous Hopes transformed to haunting Fears,
The transient Raptures ending but in sighs:

Till at the last, the life-clouds cleared away,
The future bathed in promise heavenly bright,
She heard a tender voice which seemed to say,
" At evening time, behold! I give thee light! "

For love, true love, her woman's nature yearned, —
And now true Love hath crowned her longing wild,
And all without, and all within her burned
The glory of his Godhead undefiled.

A new world dawned upon her; divine forms
Gleamed in the sunset on her earnest eyes,
And throned above the years which set in storms,
She saw the opening gates of Paradise;

An earthly Eden, freed from earth's alloy;
Across the happy porch her footsteps passed,
When on the very threshold of her joy,
Death's sudden angel blew his trumpet blast:

The gates of light, as that fierce trumpet rang,
Dissolved, like some vain phantom of the air,
And born of desolation deep, outsprang
A passionate cry — the last — of her despair:

" Love! we have been so happy! Must we part? "
Even as she spoke the final darkness came,
To many sorrowing, and one broken heart,
Leaving thenceforth but memory, and — a name!