The Lesson of Loss

No years can fill the vacant place
     From which a heart of love has dropped;
Time's slow concretions may efface
     The mark, but leave the pit unstopped.
And yet no needless sorrows mock
     The famished soul's unfed desire;
In the dark hollows of the rock
     Is nursed the gem of crystal fire!

We feel the void, and hardly know 
     With what a glory it is lined,
Till deeper thoughts have struck below, 
     That seem to make the wealth they find.
O heart we loved! these tears we shed 
     Dishonor not the faith we keep;
We weep because the form is fled
     Which bore what bids us not to weep!

We miss him in the daily task,
     We miss him in the evening cheer, 
In vain our eyes look up and ask 
     In silence for a form not here.
We miss him in our very care
     That made his failing strength more dear-
As clouded sunsets dye the air
     With hues unknown to noon-tide clear.

Yet not in vain the longing gaze—
     The outward reaching in the dark;
His soul has risen that we may raise
     Our spirits level to his mark!
He has put off the visible state, 
     That all the love whereby our being 
Is drawn to him may sublimate 
     Our vision to the inward seeing.

No backward step the soul shall know;
     No loss shall touch its vital fire—
Now glowing through this clay below;
     Now burning in the viewless choir!
It flings away the cumbering dust
     For nobler flights in realms above, 
On equal wings of hope and trust, 
     Bathed in the pure celestial Love!

A little while! it is not long—
     A little while of doubt and fear, 
Of wavering trust and sorrows strong—
     And all the darkness shall be clear.
The showery April of our woe,
     The fluctuant May of hope and dread,
In everlasting June shall glow
     With flowers of love that never ??

Our lover’s ashes sleep in earth,
     Or wake to life in grace and flower;
But his true soul, of honest worth,
     That walked with us, survives the power
Of dissolution, still to cheer
     Our hearts in life’s eternal march,
Whether we wait and labor here,
     Or climb the zodiac’s burning arch!