Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | Middle States: Roslyn, N. Y. | | Bryant’s Birthday, 1878 | | Charlotte Fiske Bates (1838–1916) |
| | The Birthday after Death
NOVEMBER, lays our very losses bare, | |
| Stripping a shadowy solace with the leaf; | |
| The stark, reft branches sharply cut the air, | |
| Giving a naked poignancy to grief. | |
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| Yet, too, this thought with subtle comfort steals, | 5 |
| No secret now between the earth and sky! | |
| All open unto heaven the spirit feels, | |
| While gazing there with unobstructed eye. | |
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| A year ago within the poet’s home | |
| Unfelt the lateness of the life and year; | 10 |
| Around him warm remembrance gave its bloom, | |
| While his fresh thought retained its summer cheer. | |
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| In this dead birthday how revives the last! | |
| Friends, gifts, and greetings,—then he welcomed all! | |
| Thinking how much his utterance in the past | 15 |
| With deepest faith this absence could forestall, | |
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| And count those present who had gone to God, | |
| We offer in our heart the old-time word, | |
| Nor lose the answer for the new-year’s sod; | |
| In some sweet verse of his it still is heard. | 20 | | | |
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