Page:Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems - Randall - 1908.pdf/165

 Too much I worshiped him, perchance Too much I drifted from Thy glance. Thou art a jealous God, and Thou Hast put Thy crown upon my brow.

I pass beneath Thy rod; I pray To find salvation’s thorny way— I care not boy what pangs beguiled, So it but lead me to my child.

Ah, blessed thought to know that he Is safe from sin and misery; That, in the young May of his life, He fell unsullied in the strife.

I treasure up his image fair, I kiss his tress of shining hair, Thrilling to hope, in heaven, that he Will be “the first to welcome me.”

Within Thy sheltering arms, I place My idol, glorified by grace; And, with the dear ones left, my eyes Gaze through the gates of Paradise.