LONE here in vague cathedral gloom I sit,
Far from the busy city’s noise and jar.
Such calm! It seems God might just now have writ
A new, sweet song of peace and whispered it
From star to star.
I almost hear a sacred anthem pealing,
As o’er the quiet aisles I turn my eyes;
It seems I hear soft prayers to heaven stealing
Up rays that lead unto the Light-revealing
In Paradise.
I think: “How oft have feet of mourners led
Down these long aisles where perfect silence reigns!
How oft have heart-uniting words been said
There at the altar, whither flowers were spread
From Love’s fair plains!”
Yes, Death and Love have hither come and gone,
With slow, sad songs, with anthems glad and free;
And still, without, the world treads on and on
In aisles that lead to darkness—or the Dawn,
O God, and Thee!