Page:Songs of the Affections.pdf/22

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Of slumbering waters wafted, or the dells Of mountains, hollow with sweet echo-cells; But, as they murmur'd on, the mortal chill Pass'd from me, like a mist before the morn, And, to that glorious intercourse upborne, By slow degrees, a calm, divinely still, Possess'd my frame:—I sought that lighted eye,— From its intense and searching purity I drank in soul!— I question'd of the dead— Of the hush'd, starry shores their footsteps tread— And I was answer'd:—if remembrance there, With dreamy whispers fill the immortal air; If Thought, here piled from many a jewel-heap, Be treasure in that pensive land to keep; If Love, o'ersweeping change, and blight, and blast, Find there the music of his home at last; I ask'd, and I was answer'd:—Full and high Was that communion with eternity, Too rich for aught so fleeting!—Like a knell Swept o'er my sense its closing words,—"Farewell,