Zinzendorff and Other Poems/"They said she was alone"
"THEY SAID SHE WAS ALONE."
They said she was alone,—and that she stood
Amid the corpses of her three fair babes,
And by his side who to her heart had been
Lover and comforter for many a year,
And that he too was dead. Amaz'd I look'd
To see if it were so,—and on his lip
There was no breath, and in his eye no light.
—They said she was alone. And many wept
In company with her. For he had fallen
Who was their guide to everlasting life,
Their oracle in doubt, the friend who pour'd.
The interceding prayer when death was nigh,
Or the tomb open'd, for its "dust to dust."
—They said she was alone. But when I turn'd
To look upon her, in her breast there lay
A tender blossom of mortality
New-born and beautiful. Methought the babe
Did bear the features of its buried sire,
And at the moaning of its timid voice,
Or its appealing smile, the lonely heart
Rose in its brokenness, and took the joy
That pays a mother's care. And so I thank'd
The Father of our Mercies, who doth watch
Our frames so tenderly, and prop the strength
Of those he smiteth, and infuse the drops
Of holy healing in the cup of grief,
That none may sink beneath his keen rebuke,
But walk in patience and in chastened hope
On to the land which hath no need that pain
Should be the teacher of its sinless host.