Page:Poems (1853).djvu/224

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We heard their voices in the gushing song
 That rose like incense from thy poet heart;
We saw the footsteps of the shining throng
 Glancing upon thy pathway, high apart,
Where in thy radiance thou didst walk the earth,
      Thou child of glorious birth.

But the way lengthened and the song grew sad,
 Breathing those tones that find no echo here;
Aspiring, soaring, but no longer glad,
 Its mournful music fell upon the ear:
’Twas the home-sickness of a soul that sighs
      For its own native skies.

Then he that to earth’s children comes at last,
 The angel-messenger, white-robed and pale,
Upon thy soul his sweet oblivion cast,
 And bore thee gently through the shadowy vale,
The fleeting years of thy brief exile o’er,
      Home to the blissful shore.