A SHADOW from the unknown world hath fallen
Upon a human home: a kindred life
Hath vanish'd in the unrestoring grave:
An old familiar face hath past away
To join remember'd things. O'er house and hearth,
Chambers and walks, a feeling sad and dim,
An all-pervading sense of vacancy,
Rests like a cloud. Amidst the household talk,
And work-day cares, and accidents of life,
Misgivings are entwined, and mournful thoughts,
That will not be repelled. From heart to heart
The general sorrow circles, like a stream
Changing its face according to the hue
Earth lends it down the cheek of youth the tears
Fall wild and rapid, like a summer rain :
On the still heart of age the weight of woe
Sinks cold and deep: childhood, the while it droops
In imitative sadness, hears with awe,
And unbelieving wonder, the strange news
That it shall never see that form again,
Which from the first of memory has been
A daily sight, a part inseparable
Of home and of its ways, from morn to eve:
And when the speechless infant, his fair cheek
Suffused with the heart's laughter, from his play
Looks up, to claim the accustomed sympathy
Of answering smiles, he wonders to behold
The faces, never sad to him before,
Blotted with tears.
We looked that thy calm soul should pass away
In calmness; that thy lamp of home-delight
And mild activity, kept clear and bright
By inward peace, should still around us play
Through many a tranquil hour of soft decay,
To soothe and cheer; as on a summer night,
With foot invisible, the western light
Steals down the heaven. But on thy waning day
Death closed, like sudden midnight upon eve:
A blast of sorrow smote thee, ere thy tree
Was sere for fall: the drops that flow for thee
Down manly cheeks, and from soft eyelids shower,
Are bitter as the tears of those, who grieve
For maiden youth, cut off in its first flower.
THEY say that thou wert lovely on thy bier,
More lovely than in life; that, when the thrall
Of earth was loos'd, it seem'd as though a pall
Of years were lifted, and thou didst appear
Such, as of old amidst thy home's calm sphere
Thou satst, a kindly Presence, felt by all
In joy or grief, from morn to evening-fall,
The peaceful Genius of that mansion dear.
-Was it the craft of all-persuading Love
That wrought this marvel? or is Death indeed
A mighty Master, gifted from above
With alchemy benign, to wounded hearts
Ministring thus, by quaint and subtle arts,
Strange comfort, whereon after-thought may feed?
TO THE SEVEN EXPELLED PROFESSORS OF GÖTTINGEN.
ANOTHER leaf is added to the book
Of worthy deeds; another record fair
To which in after times good men may turn
For light and strength, in the great war o' th' world,
When sufferings hem them round, and sinful fears
Wax strong within them. Honour be your meed,
High-hearted men! who to blind power opposing
The Scholar's peaceful fortitude, have striven
For Liberty and Law. The approving smiles
Of kindred spirits shall like sunshine wait
On your bleak path of banishment; and when
The strife is o'er, and your great father-land,
The land of Thought and Learning, hath achieved
Its hard-won freedom, your just deed shall shine,
Amongst the records of that glorious time,
Enroll'd for fame, throughout the years of man.
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