Classic Poem

I have been fain of heaven; all my soul
Reached out to it in longing; all my heart
Sang with its sweetness; all my thoughts were filled
With visions wonderful that heaven alone
Could match the truth to; and I looked on Death
But as the angel with the flaming sword
Who guards the portals of God's paradise,
August discoverer of a land sublime.
Now all is changed; I think of heaven no more.

I dreamed of heaven's music, how the songs
Of choired seraphim reverberate
Through wide sky-sweeps of high-resounding air,
Tuned to the tall archangel's trumpet-notes.
But once I stood alone upon the shore,
And for the first time listened to the sea.
I heard it thunder on the bare, brown rocks,
That resonant roar back stupendous bass;
I heard the breakers bellow up the beach,
The following half-hush, the long, slow hiss,
When the unwilling waters seaward turn.

I came away; but since that time my dreams
Of heaven's music are become as naught.
I hear alone that grave and God-voiced sea.

I dreamed of heaven's glory, how the light
Would burst unspeakable upon mine eyes,
That never could be dazzled or dismayed
By all its perfect brightness; and I saw
The tree of life beside the crystal sea,
The many-tinted wings of angel-hosts,
The sparkling walls begemmed, the gates of pearl,
The streets of unstained gold, and at the last
Behind all these glowed out the Great White Throne
But once I stood beside an inland lake
When autumn was abroad in all the land,
And earth drew nigh to sunset; and I saw
Fair armies of tall forest-trees decked out
As for some sweet and high solemnity,
Clothed on with color in a comely way —
The flaring yellow of the lithe, white birch,
The oak-tree's russet-brown or sober red,
And, best of all, those flame-imperial robes
Wherein the maple stands incarnadined.
Nor less in glory shone the radiant sky:
In the far east deep tints of purple-blue,
Ruby and violet clouds, and nearer west
A paler azure and a shy rose-pink,
And streaks of yellow-gold and dull red-gold
And gold that merged to blue and gold on gold,
And low above the trees one ball of gold,
Supreme, resplendent, building out broad paths
Across the smooth, unruffled lake, where lay
Each slightest color of the far-off sky.

I came away; but since that time my dreams
Of heaven's glory are become as naught
Before that wonder-sunset by the lake.

I dreamed of heaven's peace, how all the folk
Abiding there forever dwell in peace;
How never one discordant note might break
The harmony of that most rare delight;
How sweet tranquillity must needs abound
Under the eyes of God, which always smile.
But once I stood upon a mountain-top
Just after sunset, though the little moon
Had climbed up half her hill-way; and I saw
The great gray peaks about me loom up big.
Deep down below, the white clouds crept through all
The crevices, and topped the lower hills;
And leagues away, above that milk-white sea,
High sister-mountains shouldered up their heads,
Lifting themselves against the star-bright sky,
Which in the west yet held faint hints of gold,
And yet shone pale with looking on the sun.
And, oh! the night was still beyond all nights,
That ever hushed the hurried world to sleep.
Below the billowy mist shut out that world,
With all its wise old ways and foolish frets,
And left the eternal silence of the stars,
The eternal silence of the stable hills,
That have most peace of all created things.

I came away; but since that time my dreams
Of heaven's peace are all become as naught,
Because I met with peace upon the hills.

I dreamed of heaven's love, of such a love
As earth with all her sweetness could not know,
And found no image in my inmost soul
To figure forth that dream, but only felt
A high-exalting aspiration born
Of God's own whisper deep within my heart.
But once I stood beside a little bed
Whereon a child lay sleeping; one pink hand
With bits of fingers clutched the coverlid,
And one was pressed beneath a rosy cheek
That silken lashes swept; the wee, sweet mouth
Curved in a smile at gentle presences
By wiser heads perceived not. O'er the child
Hovered a woman, and I looked and saw
A light within her eyes that never yet
I saw the like of; 'twas the light of love,
Of such a love as made me reverent.

I turned away; but ever since my dreams
Of heaven's love are all become as naught.
I see no higher than those mother-eyes.