A Morning Walk

"Lie there," I said, "my Sorrow! lie thou there!     And I will drink the lissome air,     And see if yet the heavens have gained their blue."     Then rose my Sorrow as an aged man,     And stared, as such a one will stare,     A querulous doubt through tears that freshly ran;     Wherefore I said: "Content! thou shalt go too."     So went we throughthe sunlit crocus-glade,     I and my Sorrow, casting shade     On all the innocent things that upward pree,     And coax for smiles: but, as I went, I bowed,     And whispered    "Be no whit afraid!     He will pass sad and gentle as a cloud,     It is my Sorrow leave him unto me     And every floweret in that happy place     Yearned up into the weary face     With pitying love, and held its golden breath,     Regardless seeming he, as though within     Was nothing apt for their sweet grace,     Nor any sense save such as is akin     To charnel glooms and emptiness of death.     Then sung a lusty bird, whose throat was clear     And strong with elemental cheer,     Till very heaven seemed lifted with the joy     Jet after jet tumultuous music burst     Fount-like, and filled the expanding sphere;     Whereat my soul was fain to slake its thirst,     Intent, and ravished with that blest employ.     The songster ceased articulate as a bell,     The rippling echoes fell and fell     Upon the shore of silence. Then I turned     To call upon my Sorrow, he was not;     But O, what splendour filled the dell I     There I there I O, there! upon the very spot     Where he had been an awful glory burned.     It was as though the mouth of God had kissed     And purpled into amethyst     Wan lips, as though red-quickening ichor rills     Had flushed his heart: twas he no more, no more!     Twas she, my souls evangelist,     My rose, my love, and lovelier than before,     Dew-nurtured on the far Celestial hills.     "O love," I cried, "I come, I come to thee!     Stay! stay !     "But softly, silently,     As pales the moon before the assault of day,     So, spectral-white against the brighter blue,     Faded my darling. But with me     Walks never more that shadow.     God is true,     And God was in that bird, believe it as ye may.