Remembered

Here in the dusk I picture it again,
Her face, as ’twas before she fell asleep:
Renunciation glorifying pain
Of her soul’s inmost deep.

I shall not see its like again! the brow
Of marble, that the fair hair aureoled,--
Like some pale lily in the afterglow,--
With supernatural gold.

As if a rose should speak and, somehow heard
Thro’ some strange sense, the unembodied sound
Grow visible, her mouth was as a word
A sweet thought falters round.

So do I still remember eyes imbued
With far reflections--as the stars suggest
The silence, purity, and solitude
Of infinite peace and rest.

She was my all. I loved her as men love
A high desire, religion, an ideal--
The meaning purpose in the loss whereof
God shall alone reveal.