A Threnody

    Into the veiled hereafter,
    The misty, weird hereafter, –
A shadowy realm stretched far and dim
Beyond the horizon’s purple rim, –
    She hath gone! and I cannot waft her
        One poor memorial kiss,
        To that hidden world from this.

    Beyond the sunset’s portals,
    The outward-opening portair
That ne’er swing inward to return
A loved one to the hearts that yearn,
    She hath joined the pale immortals,
        Gone out like a setting star,
        Through the golden gates ajar!

    Wither, O poet, whither?
    Artist and lover, whither?
Into what deeps of vaporous light
Hath thy freed spirit taken flight?
    That so I might follow thither,
        A silken stir that betrays
        Thy path in the golden haze.

    Ah me! I can only wonder,
    Can only weep and wonder!
Where now is that clear, beaming sight
That flooded her blue eyes with light?
    Where dwelleth the love that under
        That bosom, pure and warm,
        Gave grace to her pliant form?

    Hath a more ethereal beauty,
    A subtler shape of beauty,
Enshrined that soul that here could make,
The throbbing clay its image take,
    Love-loyal to liege duty,
        Till every flexure felt
        The grace that behind it dwelt?

    What canvas of gray ether,
    Of gray, impalpable ether,
What pencil of ethereal beams,
Can fix the glory of her dreams,
    That later souls, beneath her
        In the ages, may behold
        How their magic forms unfold?

    How sings that heart her measures,
    Her mellow-numbered measures,
That warbled like the bob-o-link,
Or moon-lit brooks where fairies drink?
    For even celestial pleasures
        Her gift of holy song
        Might deepen and prolong.

    Ah, vast, bewildering silence!
    Waste of unbroken silence!
No breath of prayer, nor dropping tear,
Can undulate thy waveless mere!
    Life there no purple islands,
        A signal peak that tells
        Where my vanished voyager dwells.

    O! mistily veiled hereafter,
    Great, taciturn hereafter,
I too, can lock my asking lips,
And wait through sad life’s brief eclipse,
    Till soul to soul I waft her
        My greeting by what sign
        So-ever seals her mine!