Oh, For A Home Of Rest!

Oh, for a home of rest!     Time lags alone so slow, so wearily;     Couldst thou but smile on me, I should be blest.     Alas, alas! that never more may be.     Oh, for the sky-lark's wing to soar to thee!     This earth I would forsake     For starry realms whose sky's forever fair;     There, tears are shed not, hearts will cease to ache,     And sorrow's plaintive voice shall never break     The heavenly stillness that is reigning there.     Life's every charm has fled,     The world is all a wilderness to me;     "For thou art numbered with the silent dead."     Oh, how my heart o'er this dark thought has bled!     How I have longed for wings to follow thee!     In visions of the night     With angel smile thou beckon'st me away,     Pointing to worlds where hope is free from blight;     And then a cloud comes o'er that brow of light,     Seeming to chide me for my long delay.