Poems (Eckley)/A Vision

by Sophia May Eckley

For works with similar titles, see A Vision.

A VISION.

N ambient garment encircled her,
 Woven of mystic air,
And o'er her brow in beauty fell
 Long threads of golden hair.
A net of cloud-wrought silver
 Her tresses did ensnare,
And when I tried to touch her,
 She vanished into air.

I sought her hand to clasp it—
 Her spirit hand in mine,
For there it lay like a rosy shell
 Seen through the frothy brine.
And sense entrancing odours
 In mists encompassed were,
From flowers which had fainted
 In giving their breath to her.

But as I pressed her airy hand,
 It seemed to melt away,
Though it left an impress where it touched,
 Like the kiss of a vanished day.
And as she floated by me,
 She kindled my room with light,
Like a star that has drifted earthward
 To say to the world "Good-night."

Had she then a "Good-night" for me
 Down on this earth so far?
Yes! and had brought me a lily from Heaven,
 To lay in my bosom and wear.
At last to words her lips trembled,
 As petals of roses might,
When the zephyrs stoop to kiss them
 As they pause in wayward flight.

"This lily pure was sent to thee
 By one who could not stay,
But just behind the veil she waits
 Thine immortality."
This said—she smiled and kist it,
 On my pillow, there it lay;
Then into a turret of darkness
 She floated in cloud away.

And when I am sad and weary
 With earth's dull masquerade,
I think of that night's sweet vision,
 And what the angel said,
When on my restless pillow
 She laid this Lily of Love,
To strengthen me for days to come,
 Till that one bright Day above.