The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 4.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

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[28]
     Not others, but themselves are they.
And still I think of them the same
     As when the Master's summons came;
Their change,—the holy morn-light breaking
     Upon the dream-worn sleeper, waking,—
A change from twilight into day.

They've laid thee midst the household graves,
     Where father, brother, sister lie;
Below thee sweep the dark blue waves,
     Above thee bends the summer sky.
Thy own loved church in sadness read
     Her solemn ritual o'er thy head,
And blessed and hallowed with her prayer
     The turf laid lightly o'er thee there.
That church, whose rites and liturgy,
     Sublime and old, were truth to thee,
Undoubted to thy bosom taken,
     As symbols of a faith unshaken.
Even I, of simpler views, could feel
     The beauty of thy trust and zeal;
And, owning not thy creed, could see
     How deep a truth it seemed to thee,
And how thy fervent heart had thrown
     O'er all, a coloring of its own,
And kindled up, intense and warm,
     A life in every rite and form,
As, when on Chebar's banks of old,
     The Hebrew's gorgeous vision rolled,
A spirit filled the vast machine,
     A life ‘within the wheels’ was seen.

Farewell! A little time, and we
     Who knew thee well, and loved thee here,