Page:Reuben and other poems.pdf/54

 “Blessed be God!” he cried: “O Earth, Thy shadows flit and fail! My day is dawn’d, my dark is past. O light that brings the Light at last! O risen sun, O Rising Sun, O death, O Life! All hail!”

But the barb’d Rose his raiment caught As glad he turn’d to go. And pausing, looking down, he said, “Ah, my poor flowers! When I am dead, Seeds, and the uncouth wildlings will, How quickly! lay you low.

“Who, being perish’d—O there comes A strange hope to my mind! Will that good God whose mercy can A heaven bestow on erring man To His green world that never fell Be less completely kind?

“I shall see Him! Ah, then I shall Nought else desire to see! But if your diligence ye do, He, loving beauty, must love you: And round the many mansions, sure Must many gardens be?