Angels.
199
That which sent the glad blood leaping in a torrent to my heart:
Softly on my shoulders folded lay a pair of glittering wings,
Pure and beautiful, and glancing like to living, breathing things!
Oh! I longed yet feared to wave them, for it seemed as if they slept.
Though my shining tresses kissed them and upon their brightness crept.
Onward, onward moved my bright boat through the dreamy azure air—
Then I saw around me, rippling through the ether everywhere,
Many and many a pearly vessel with its gleam of golden light;
And in each one, softly singing, sat an angel pure and bright.
Their wings like mine were folded, and their wreaths had such a glow,
But their starry eyes moved never from the living world below.
Then I knew that they were angels—guardian angels of the earth—
That each angel watched a spirit from the moment of its birth!
That they hovered o'er them ever, in the day and in the night.
Looking ever at their spirits with their eyes of living light.
Each one had the pleasant power to bestow some gift of grace
On the soul which it was guarding in its earthly dwelling-place.
And no heart, however sinning, beat within a human breast.
But that angel-gift still lingered like a holy thing and blest!
Then methought I saw the spirit that thenceforth was in my care—
'Twas a bright and blessed infant, pure, and beautiful, and fair,
Sleeping on its mother's bosom, with its eyes of dewy blue
From their half-unclosing fringes like deep starlight shining through;
With its cheeks as soft as velvet, and its ringlets of brown hair
Lying on its blue-veined temples and its forehead baby-fair.
Oh! the darling was so beautiful! the mother's gaze of pride
Grew dim with dewy lovingness—the tears she could not hide
Stole to her drooping lashes, and she murmured a low prayer
That her babe might be forever thus—sinless, pure, and fair.
Then I laid my angel-gift on the heart of the little child.
And she opened her eyes so sweetly in her mother's face and smiled.
It was not pride or beauty, or a princess' diadem.
But the pearl of changeless modesty—a purer, holier gem.
Then an angel glided by me whose gaze so still and deep
Was in a silent chamber where a young girl lay asleep.
Softly on my shoulders folded lay a pair of glittering wings,
Pure and beautiful, and glancing like to living, breathing things!
Oh! I longed yet feared to wave them, for it seemed as if they slept.
Though my shining tresses kissed them and upon their brightness crept.
Onward, onward moved my bright boat through the dreamy azure air—
Then I saw around me, rippling through the ether everywhere,
Many and many a pearly vessel with its gleam of golden light;
And in each one, softly singing, sat an angel pure and bright.
Their wings like mine were folded, and their wreaths had such a glow,
But their starry eyes moved never from the living world below.
Then I knew that they were angels—guardian angels of the earth—
That each angel watched a spirit from the moment of its birth!
That they hovered o'er them ever, in the day and in the night.
Looking ever at their spirits with their eyes of living light.
Each one had the pleasant power to bestow some gift of grace
On the soul which it was guarding in its earthly dwelling-place.
And no heart, however sinning, beat within a human breast.
But that angel-gift still lingered like a holy thing and blest!
Then methought I saw the spirit that thenceforth was in my care—
'Twas a bright and blessed infant, pure, and beautiful, and fair,
Sleeping on its mother's bosom, with its eyes of dewy blue
From their half-unclosing fringes like deep starlight shining through;
With its cheeks as soft as velvet, and its ringlets of brown hair
Lying on its blue-veined temples and its forehead baby-fair.
Oh! the darling was so beautiful! the mother's gaze of pride
Grew dim with dewy lovingness—the tears she could not hide
Stole to her drooping lashes, and she murmured a low prayer
That her babe might be forever thus—sinless, pure, and fair.
Then I laid my angel-gift on the heart of the little child.
And she opened her eyes so sweetly in her mother's face and smiled.
It was not pride or beauty, or a princess' diadem.
But the pearl of changeless modesty—a purer, holier gem.
Then an angel glided by me whose gaze so still and deep
Was in a silent chamber where a young girl lay asleep.
