One Who Was Both Wife and Friend

Mark how she sleeps the long unending sleep

And all my dreams sleep silent by her side,

Beauty so fair on seeing her I weep

That bounteous love did in my life reside.

Her coverlet these star-wrought tapestries

As she rests at peace upon this golden soil,

For now she soars beyond life's boundaries,

Ended are the years of body's toil.

The night's soft grasses bend beside the rills

To pillow her, does she remember me

When the mystic moon falls white upon the hills

In radiant moments of eternity?

It was joy that drew our kindred beings close

For knowing her the flame yet brighter glows

Though her spirit's flight is our earthly loss

Great are the gifts the grace divine bestows

On men as I who knew such love as this

And breathed the fragrance of the higher spheres

Through this frail jar, this envelope of bliss,

Companion of the soul's evolving years.

I go not to an empty house alone

To face the barren winter of my days

Bereft of laughter, all life's pleasures gone,

Bur rather in these lonely nights to praise

And know that at the last God shall not fail

Our souls; though times of sorrow still attend;

He in human hearts will yet prevail,

Return to me one who was both wife and friend.