Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1839/The Death of Heber
77
DEATH OF BISHOP HEBER.
|
THE DEATH OF HEBER.
"So unexpected was the event by those who had a few minutes before seen the Bishop walk, in perfect health, to the bath, that the bearing of his body to the house scarcely disturbed those of the retinue who were loitering around."
He left a calm and pleasant home,
A home of peace and rest,
Beneath whose green and quiet eaves
The swallow built her nest.
For an uncertain troubled path,
And for a foreign shore,
He left the lovely English home
He was to see no more.
The wild winds filled the swelling sails
The bore him o’er the main;
Did he look back to that dear land
He never saw again?
He might look back with tender care,
And thoughts of other years,
But higher hopes aside had cast
All weak and human fears.
The good man in the appointed time
Reached the appointed land—
Joy was beside his onward path,
And blessings in his hand.
He died—and strangers hurried round
To raise his drooping head;
The sorrow of a multitude
Was round that dying bed.
Glorious the lesson that arose
From sorrow and from scaith;
Death! thou hast now no victory—
This is the Christian’s faith!