I.
FRIENDS of faces unknown and a land
Unvisited over the sea,
ell me and
ithe hand
o be looked at by me, --
II.
o ponder and say
a father can do,
it fello away
Out of reache clay
s press nearer than you.
III.
S, or run
Into ears for relief ?
O one, --
Yet my arm s round my otle son,
And Love kno of Grief.
IV.
And I feel must be and is,
hen God draws a new angel so
to his,
ith a murmur of music, you miss,
And a rapture of light, you forgo.
V.
aring on at the door,
he face of your angel flashed in,
t its brightness, familiar before,
Burns off from you ever the more
For the dark of your sorrow and sin.
VI.
`God lent akes him, you sigh ;
-- Nay, t me break h your pain :
God s generous in giving, say I, --
And thing which he gives, I deny
t ake back again.
VII.
he gives. I appeal
to all whe hour
he body we feel
Rent round us, -- s reveal
t in power,
VIII.
And the babe cries ! -- has each of us known
By apocalypse (God being there
Full in nature) the child is our own,
Life of life, love of love, moan of moan,
times, everywhere.
IX.
he s ours and for ever. Believe,
O father, look back
to t loves assurance. to give
Means to tempt or deceive
it in Benjamins sack.
X.
ent !
hing given, -- be sure !
God lend ?
In emple, indignant
And scourged ahose impure.
XI.
; but gives to the end,
As o t seem
t , comprehend
tis to add to it rather, -- amend,
And finis up to your dream, --
XII.
Or keep, -- as a motoys
too costly, though given by herself,
till tiller from noise,
And t for such joys,
Kept over the shelf.
XIII.
So look up, friends ! you, who indeed
piece
Of trive for, must need
Be more earnest thers are,--speed
er, persist whey cease.
XIV.
You know here.
t. tis easy for you
to be drawn by a single gold hair
Of t curl, from eartorm and despair,
to the safe place above us. Adieu.