A track of moonlight on a quiet lake, <br />Whose small waves on a silver-sanded shore <br />Whisper of peace, and with the low winds make <br />Such harmonies as keep the woods awake, <br />And listening all night long for their sweet sake <br />A green-waved slope of meadow, hovered o'er <br />By angel-troops of lilies, swaying light <br />On viewless stems, with folded wings of white; <br />A slumberous stretch of mountain-land, far seen <br />Where the low westering day, with gold and green, <br />Purple and amber, softly blended, fills <br />The wooded vales, and melts among the hills; <br />A vine-fringed river, winding to its rest <br />On the calm bosom of a stormless sea, <br />Bearing alike upon its placid breast, <br />With earthly flowers and heavenly' stars impressed, <br />The hues of time and of eternity <br />Such are the pictures which the thought of thee, <br />O friend, awakeneth,--charming the keen pain <br />Of thy departure, and our sense of loss <br />Requiting with the fullness of thy gain. <br />Lo! on the quiet grave thy life-borne cross, <br />Dropped only at its side, methinks doth shine, <br />Of thy beatitude the radiant sign! <br />No sob of grief, no wild lament be there, <br />To break the Sabbath of the holy air; <br />But, in their stead, the silent-breathing prayer <br />Of hearts still waiting for a rest like thine. <br />O spirit redeemed! Forgive us, if henceforth, <br />With sweet and pure similitudes of earth, <br />We keep thy pleasant memory freshly green, <br />Of love's inheritance a priceless part, <br />Which Fancy's self, in reverent awe, is seen <br />To paint, forgetful of the tricks of art, <br />With pencil dipped alone in colors of the heart.<br /><br />John Greenleaf Whittier<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-peace-4/
