Classic Poem

In sylvan shades where light can never dawn
The streamlet issues from its darksome cave,
Gleams a brief space along the forest lawn,
Then rolls in deepest gloom its dusky wave.

Anon it leaves for aye the tufted brake,
Its current now by rocks no more represt,
And spreading into yon resplendent Lake
Receives all Heav'n into its tranquil breast.

Thus human love in sorrow and in gloom
Awhile must wander on its earthly way,
But issuing from the shadows of the tomb
Shall beam at last in Heav'n's eternal day.

Divinest Charity that here below
Dispensed her draughts with care from scantiest brooks,
And sought the tender herbs and flow'rs that grow
Beneath sharp thorns amid the tangled nooks,

Shall there behold the endless streams of bliss
That glittering roll along their affluent tide,
And amaranthine blooms of happiness
In vast profusion heaped on every side.

And rapt Devotion that from earth's low sphere
Gazed upward with a steadfast fervent eye,
And ev'n where clouds and veiling mist appear
Discerned the Sun of promise in the sky:

Freed from the weaknesses of earthly mould
Shall dwell aloft ethereal and sublime,
The Sun of Righteousness for aye behold
Veiled by no cloud in Heav'n's refulgent clime.