Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WITHDRAWAL, by LUCY LARCOM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WITHDRAWAL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Was it thy step on the mountain-side?
Last Line: With the glow of a deathless hope.
Subject(s): Death; Moosilauke Mountain, New Hampshire; Whittier, John Greenleaf (1807-1892); Dead, The


(J. G. W. September 7, 1892)
WAS it thy step on the mountain-side?
Was it thy voice in the air? --
Strange beauty illumined the landscape wide;
The world lay in heaven-light there.
And a whisper, a breath, through my trouble went; --
Did a soul speak, passing by? --
"Ah, see how the heights and the levels are blent,
How the peaks are dissolved in the sky!
"One tender suffusion of splendor is this, --
Blue summits and meadows green!
So peaceful, so soft the withdrawal is
Of a life into Light unseen."
-- Thy spirit was passing -- I knew it not --
Beyond the light of the sun!
And the world thou hast left has a radiance caught
From the glory that thou hast won.
And my soul arises and follows thine
Up the luminous heavenward slope;
For thy beautiful footprints make earth divine
With the glow of a deathless hope.






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