Poem by Lucy Larcom

Withdrawal, J.G.W. September 7, 1892

WAS it thy step on the mountain-side?
Was it thy voice in the air? —
Strange beauty illumined the landscape wide;
The world lay in heaven-light there.
And a whisper, a breath, through my trouble went; —
Did a soul speak, passing by? —
"Ah, see how the heights and the levels are blent,
How the peaks are dissolved in the sky!
"One tender suffusion of splendor is this, —
Blue summits and meadows green!
So peaceful, so soft the withdrawal is
Of a life into Light unseen."
— Thy spirit was passing — I knew it not —
Beyond the light of the sun!
And the world thou hast left has a radiance caught
From the glory that thou hast won.
And my soul arises and follows thine
Up the luminous heavenward slope;
For thy beautiful footprints make earth divine
With the glow of a deathless hope.

1. Drawing Nearer
2. “In Remembrance of Me“
3. In the Dark
4. The Perfect Word
5. “Ye Shall Live Also“

Print

1411 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version