Classic Poem

I

L UCILLA lives in yon half-hidden star
Bowered in a dreamy, soft-skied, watery vale,
Where angels gather from bright worlds afar,
To see her face, and listen to her tale.

II

As if all sunset revelled in the air,
The rosy clouds float o'er her paradise, —
Home of the once lone daughter of despair
Who prayed through tears with ever downcast eyes.

III

The lucent hills pant in the azure beams,
Behind empurpled steeps that blend below
With trembling woods and crystal-bearing streams,
And in the sky-paved water-mirrors glow.

IV

As rising stars entangle in their spheres
All the blue ether round, her look of thought
Hangs in heaven's light, where her sad life appears
A sunless vision in new sunshine wrought.

V

There doth she stand, bliss-stricken as by fear.
On one soft hand she rests her chin and cheek,
Paling with rapture ere the blush appear;
And lips in tremors whisper that would speak.

VI

" Yes, I am here, and Heaven is undefiled!
This sinless face and these all-loving eyes
God gave me when I was a little child,
Because I was to be in Paradise.

VII

" I heard a voice and slavery's loosened bond
Fell from my soul, awaking me to die;
I looked into death's mirror and beyond
I saw these halls of immortality.

VIII

" My wounded heart lay in this bosom dead
Ere it had loved — yet oft as I did pray
That these wan hands might labour for their bread,
Hope only came to prayer but did not stay.

IX

" Sin compassed me, it was my deadly fate;
Yet lovely visions in the darkness came,
And I fled trembling to the Temple's gate
But durst not cross the threshold for my shame.

X

" While on the Temple's steps I sat in tears,
One came and spoke: I gazed and I adored!
Then did a voice that only woman hears
Whisper within: I listened, self-abhorred.

XI

" 'Twas He whose image visited my sleep.
But still He spake to me in words that gave
A world, and had soul-echoes clear and deep
Which widened ever like the circling wave.

XII

" His image grew before my wondering mind —
His, 'mid whose many griefs my life began.
Enrapt I gazed, until my eyes were blind,
On Him who in His pity dies for man.

XIII

" When the blest vision ceased, my eyes would droop
And in great dreams that holy Being meet;
Then would He clothe me, lowly would He stoop,
And with His hands anoint my weary feet.

XIV

" Thenceforth He was the rock that safely drew
My heart to shelter, as the gentle shore
Receives the broken wave: to Him it flew
And the lulled sorrow beat on me no more.

XV

" Then o'er me flowed that stream of heavenly grace
Which all my infant innocence restored:
From that glad hour has rested on my face
This happy gaze of one who has adored.

XVI

" The living Saviour had my heart enthralled!
I saw His face, in His blessed footsteps moved;
And in my dreams His holy word recalled;
I knew not who He was: I only loved.

XVII

" Then did I but remember things to come.
The reveries of pure delights above;
Yes, to this blissful height my passion clomb,
And sin was silenced in the hush of love.

XVIII

" In that o'ershadowing trance till death I lay:
Peace weighed upon me like the Saviour's kiss.
Towards the beloved my eyes would fondly stray
In sleeping rapture and awaking bliss.

XIX

" Death with dis-shadowed hand had come betimes,
And bore my grave into the open skies.
And then I hearkened to the heavenly chimes
That cheered my soul's ascent to Paradise.

XX

" My end seemed consummated in the clouds:
There with the purple morn my slumber broke;
But tempting spirits hovered round in crowds
And gathered like a storm as I awoke.

XXI

" Upon the Temple's highest pinnacle
The Saviour stood in glory like the sun.
The rapture of my soul was at the full:
Eternal life had unawares begun.

XXII

" He from that holy height upon me gazed;
The angels in His glorious presence trod:
With outstretched wings I rushed to them amazed
And flew into the open arms of God."