Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/427

Rh Imagination held in check
 * To serve, not rule, thy poisëd mind;

Thy Reason, at the frown or beck
 * Of Conscience, loose or bind.

No dreamer thou, but real all,—
 * Strong manhood crowning vigorous youth

Life made by duty epical
 * And rhythmic with the truth.

So shall that life the fruitage yield
 * Which trees of healing only give,

And green-leafed in the Eternal field
 * Of God, forever live!

my dream, methought I trod, Yesternight, a mountain road; Narrow as Al Sirat’s span, High as eagle’s flight, it ran.

Overhead, a roof of cloud With its weight of thunder bowed; Underneath, to left and right, Blankness and abysmal night.

Here and there a wild-flower blushed; Now and then a bird-song gushed; Now and then, through rifts of shade, Stars shone out, and sunbeams played.

But the goodly company, Walking in that path with me, One by one the brink o’erslid, One by one the darkness hid.

Some with wailing and lament, Some with cheerful courage went; But, of all who smiled or mourned, Never one to us returned.

Anxiously, with eye and ear, Questioning that shadow drear, Never hand in token stirred, Never answering voice I heard!

Steeper, darker!—lo! I felt From my feet the pathway melt, Swallowed by the black despair, And the hungry jaws of air.

Past the stony-throated caves, Strangled by the wash of waves, Past the splintered crags, I sank On a green and flowery bank,—

Soft as fall of thistle-down, Lightly as a cloud is blown, Soothingly as childhood pressed To the bosom of its rest.

Of the sharp-horned rocks instead, Green the grassy meadows spread, Bright with waters singing by Trees that propped a golden sky.

Painless, trustful, sorrow-free, Old lost faces welcomed me,