The Joy of Grief


 * "THE JOY OF GRIEF"

SWEET the hour of tribulation, When the heart can freely sigh; And the tear of resignation Twinkles in the mournful eye.

Have you felt a kind emotion Tremble through your troubled breast; Soft as evening o'er the ocean, When she charms the waves to rest?

Have you lost a friend, or brother? Heard a father's parting breath? Gazed upon a lifeless mother. Till she seem'd to wake from death?

Have you felt a spouse expiring In your arms, before your view? Watch'd the lovely soul retiring From her eyes that broke on you?

Did not grief then grow romantic. Raving on remember'd bliss? Did you not, with fervor frantic, Kiss the lips that felt no kiss?

Yes! but, when you had resign'd her, Life and you were reconciled ; left—she left behind her, One, one dear, one only child.

But before the green moss peeping, His poor mother's grave array'd, In that grave the infant sleeping On the mother's lap was laid.

Horror then, your heart congealing, Chill'd you with intense despair: Can you call to mind the feeling?— No! there was no feeling there.

From that gloomy trance of sorrow When you woke to pangs unknown, How unwelcome was the morrow, For it rose on !

Sunk in self-consuming anguish, Can the poor heart always ache? No! the tortured nerve will languish, Or the strings of life must break.

O'er the yielding brow of Sadness One faint smile of comfort stole; One soft pang of tender gladness Exquisitely thrill'd your soul.

While the wounds of woe are healing, While the heart is all resign'd; 'Tis a solemn feast of feeling, 'Tis the sabbath of the mind.

Pensive memory then retraces Scenes of bliss for ever fled, Lives in former times and places, Holds communion with the dead.

And when night's prophetic slumbers Rend the veil to mortal eyes. From their tombs the sainted numbers Of our lost companions rise.

You have seen a friend, a brother, Heard a dear dead father speak; Proved the fondness of a mother, Felt her tears upon your cheek.

Dreams of love your grief beguiling, You have clasp'd a consort's charms. And received your infant smiling From his mother's sacred arms.

Trembling, pale, and agonizing, While you mourn'd the vision gone, Bright the morning-star arising Open'd heaven, from whence it shone

Thither all your wishes bending, Rose in ecstacy sublime, Thither all your hopes ascending Triumph'd over death and time.

Thus afflicted, bruised, and broken. Have you known such sweet relief? Yes, my friend ; and by this token. You have felt "."