To a Lady, XLVII

And then I thought if I should ever Reach that dear home, to leave it never, I too would find some angel-spirit Risen from Earth through Christ, his merit, With whom I too might ever hover, In heavenly love, a heavenly lover. Then did it seem—oh pray no sin So sweet a thought of heaven be in! Then did it seem, that heaven the dearer Would surely be, and joy sincerer, To have some soul, akin to mine, Go out o’er all the fields divine, Link’d with mine own—some soul that I Had known this side Eternity: That we, no more to part asunder, Together there, might gaze and wonder; Praising the Lord for all things there, For all his wondrous works and fair, So vast, so bright: but most, that we Safe landed there at last, should be! And then along our starry walk, Of this lone planet would we talk, The dear green Earth, our once sweet home, Of which such few, far tidings come; Of all its joy, of all its woe, Of many a landscape there below; How we were children there, and grew; How many a joyful hour we knew, Of how we dwelt, of how we roved, And dearer far, of how we loved! And so together would we be Blest, through a long Eternity; As o’er the loving worlds we trod, With all our love absorb’d in God.