CHRISTIAN MELVILLE. EPOCH IV.
Reading edition
There is no emblem of our lives so fit As the brief days of April, when we sit Folding our arms in sorrow, our sad eyes Dimmed with long weeping; lo! a wondrous ray, Unhoped-for sunshine bursting from the skies To chase the shadow of our gloom away. And lest the dazzling gladness blind us, lo! An hour of twilight quiet followeth slow, Moistening our eyelids with its grateful tears, Strengthening our vision for the radiant beam That yet shall light these unknown future years,— Each joy, each grief, in its appointed room, Ripening the precious fruit for heaven’s high harvest home.