"They said she was alone"

They said she was alone,—and that she stoodAmid the corpses of her three fair babes,And by his side who to her heart had beenLover and comforter for many a year,And that he too was dead. Amaz'd I look'dTo see if it were so,—and on his lipThere was no breath, and in his eye no light.—They said she was alone. And many weptIn company with her. For he had fallen

Who was their guide to everlasting life,Their oracle in doubt, the friend who pour'd.The interceding prayer when death was nigh,Or the tomb open'd, for its "dust to dust."—They said she was alone. But when I turn'dTo look upon her, in her breast there layA tender blossom of mortalityNew-born and beautiful. Methought the babeDid bear the features of its buried sire,And at the moaning of its timid voice,Or its appealing smile, the lonely heartRose in its brokenness, and took the joyThat pays a mother's care. And so I thank'dThe Father of our Mercies, who doth watchOur frames so tenderly, and prop the strengthOf those he smiteth, and infuse the dropsOf holy healing in the cup of grief,That none may sink beneath his keen rebuke,But walk in patience and in chastened hopeOn to the land which hath no need that painShould be the teacher of its sinless host.