Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FAMILY MEETING, by CHARLES SPRAGUE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FAMILY MEETING, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We are all here
Last Line: We 're all — all here!
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


WE are all here!
Father, mother,
Sister, brother,
All who hold each other dear.
Each chair is filled — we 're all at home;
To-night let no cold stranger come;
It is not often thus around
Our old familiar hearth we 're found.
Bless, then, the meeting and the spot;
For once be every care forgot;
Let gentle Peace assert her power,
And kind Affection rule the hour;
We 're all — all here.

We 're not all here!
Some are away — the dead ones dear,
Who thronged with us this ancient hearth,
And gave the hour to guiltless mirth.
Fate, with a stern, relentless hand,
Looked in and thinned our little band;
Some like a night-flash passed away,
And some sank, lingering, day by day;
The quiet graveyard — some lie there —
And cruel Ocean has his share —
We 're not all here.

We are all here!
Even they — the dead — though dead, so dear.
Fond Memory, to her duty true,
Brings back their faded forms to view.
How life-like, through the mist of years,
Each well-remembered face appears!
We see them as in times long past;
From each to each kind looks are cast;
We hear their words, their smiles behold,
They 're round us as they were of old —
We are all here.

We are all here!
Father, mother,
Sister, brother,
You that I love with love so dear.
This may not long of us be said;
Soon must we join the gathered dead;
And by the hearth we now sit round
Some other circle will be found.
O, then, that wisdom may we know,
Which yields a life of peace below!
So, in the world to follow this,
May each repeat, in words of bliss,
We 're all — all here!





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