by
Upon my lips she laid her touch divine,
And merry
speech and careless laughter died;
She fixed her melancholy eyes on
mine,
And would not be denied.
I saw the west wind loose his cloudlets white
In
flocks, careering through the April sky;
I could not sing though joy was at
its height,
For she stood silent by.
I watched the lovely evening fade away;
A mist
was lightly drawn across the stars;
She broke my quiet dream, I heard her
say,
“Behold your prison bars!
“Earth’s gladness shall not satisfy your
soul,
This beauty of the world in which you live;
The crowning grace
that sanctifies the whole,
That, I alone can give.”
I heard and shrank away from her afraid;
But
still she held me and would still abide;
Youth’s bounding pulses
slackened and obeyed,
With slowly ebbing tide.
“Look thou beyond the evening star,”
she said, “ "Beyond the changing splendors of the day;
Accept the
pain, the weariness, the dread,
Accept and bid me stay!”
I turned and clasped her close with sudden
strength,
And slowly, sweetly, I became aware
Within my arms God’s
angel stood at length,
White-robed and calm and fair.
And now I look beyond the evening star,
Beyond
the changing splendors of the day,
Knowing the pain He sends more precious
far,
More beautiful, than they.