Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.

Religious Poems

The Friend’s Burial

MY thoughts are all in yonder town,

Where, wept by many tears,

To-day my mother’s friend lays down

The burden of her years.

True as in life, no poor disguise

Of death with her is seen,

And on her simple casket lies

No wreath of bloom and green.

Oh, not for her the florist’s art,

The mocking weeds of woe;

Dear memories in each mourner’s heart

Like heaven’s white lilies blow.

And all about the softening air

Of new-born sweetness tells,

And the ungathered May-flowers wear

The tints of ocean shells.

The old, assuring miracle

Is fresh as heretofore;

And earth takes up its parable

Of life from death once more.

Here organ-swell and church-bell toll

Methinks but discord were;

The prayerful silence of the soul

Is best befitting her.

No sound should break the quietude

Alike of earth and sky;

O wandering wind in Seabrook wood,

Breathe but a half-heard sigh!

Sing softly, spring-bird, for her sake;

And thou not distant sea,

Lapse lightly as if Jesus spake,

And thou wert Galilee!

For all her quiet life flowed on

As meadow streamlets flow,

Where fresher green reveals alone

The noiseless ways they go.

From her loved place of prayer I see

The plain-robed mourners pass,

With slow feet treading reverently

The graveyard’s springing grass.

Make room, O mourning ones, for me,

Where, like the friends of Paul,

That you no more her face shall see

You sorrow most of all.

Her path shall brighten more and more

Unto the perfect day;

She cannot fail of peace who bore

Such peace with her away.

O sweet, calm face that seemed to wear

The look of sins forgiven!

O voice of prayer that seemed to bear

Our own needs up to heaven!

How reverent in our midst she stood,

Or knelt in grateful praise!

What grace of Christian womanhood

Was in her household ways!

For still her holy living meant

No duty left undone;

The heavenly and the human blent

Their kindred loves in one.

And if her life small leisure found

For feasting ear and eye,

And Pleasure, on her daily round,

She passed unpausing by,

Yet with her went a secret sense

Of all things sweet and fair,

And Beauty’s gracious providence

Refreshed her unaware.

She kept her line of rectitude

With love’s unconscious ease;

Her kindly instincts understood

All gentle courtesies.

An inborn charm of graciousness

Made sweet her smile and tone,

And glorified her farm-wife dress

With beauty not its own.

The dear Lord’s best interpreters

Are humble human souls;

The Gospel of a life like hers

Is more than books or scrolls.

From scheme and creed the light goes out,

The saintly fact survives;

The blessed Master none can doubt

Revealed in holy lives.

1873.