________________________________________________
Title: An Elegy On The Death Of A Beloved Child
Author: John Castillo [
More Titles by Castillo]
My little boy! my lovely boy!
Why in such haste away?
Will no embrace, or tempting toy,
Induce thy longer stay?
What prompted thee the day before,
To climb thy Father’s knee,—
Spring to the window or the door,
With such unusual glee?
I wonder oft, with wakeful eye,
And think it might be so,
Some Spirit then was passing by,
And beckon’d thee to go!
I recollect with other things,
Which I have felt and fear’d,
Once something like the sound of wings,
Within the room was heard!
Hast thou in infant vision seen
The city of our God?
Or on those holy mountains been,
By saints and angels trod?
Or hast thou heard the melody
Which fills the courts above?
Or has thy Saviour shown to thee
The tokens of his love?
If so,—no wonder thou should’st look
So light on all below;—
If thou hast tasted of the brook
Where living waters flow!
No wonder thou with such delight,
Didst view the rising sun:
Then glance on us thine eye so bright,
And flutter to be gone!
If thou hast seen among heaven’s choirs,
The crown that thou shalt wear,
Forgive a parent’s fond desires,
To keep thee longer here.
If thou among earth’s griefs and joys,
Hadst any longer stayed,
With other rude and wicked boys,
Hadst into evil strayed;—
Hadst thou thy Saviour disobey’d,
Who died thy soul to save,
Thy parents’ heads might have been laid,
With sorrow in the grave.
If it be wrong to mourn for thee,
The Lord that wrong forgive,
And grant us grace each day, that we
In him may walk and live.
O could our faith but pierce the gloom
That hovers round our clay,
We might prefer an early tomb,
To one that’s old and grey!
Could we but hear the songs they sing,
Or see the robes they wear,
’Twould give our resolutions wing,
With longings to be there.
To see those heavenly harpers young,
Light up the sacred fires;
To see their nimble fingers run
Along the golden wires;
Would make a man forget his grief,
His conflicts here below,
And give a mother’s soul relief,
With languishings to go!
Would make us all forsake our sin,
And Jesus Christ adore,
And bring the resolution in,
To grieve our God no more.
Would make us to His house resort,
To weep, and watch, and pray,
Until we gain that blissful port
Where tears are wiped away.
[The end]
John Castillo's poem: Elegy On The Death Of A Beloved Child
________________________________________________
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
