Poems (Cary)/My Friend

For works with similar titles, see My Friend.
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MY FRIEND.
Along the west the stormy red Burned blackest gaps afar and near;Across the coverlid of snowWe saw the shadows come and go, But no one to his neighbor said          His saddest fear.
Peered from his hole the bright-eyed mouse, The winds were blowing wild and wide,Up the bleak sand the tide ran whiteAnd icy as the full moon's light, And in his lonesome hollow house          The brown owl cried.
We knew her pain, and care were o'er, We knew that angels led the way,Yet wept, and could not choose but weepThe while we saw her go to sleep For the long night that falls before          The eternal day.
The starlight glimmering faintly through The window, shone beside her bed, ​But ere the solemn time had wornTo the white breaking of the morn, It faded off. Alas, I knew          That she was dead.
I put my hair before my eyes, And all my soul to sorrow gave;My only comfort was to knowThat she no longer saw my wo— All heaven was gone out of the skies          Into the grave.
From off the windy threshing floors The dust in golden flaws was blown,The cock crew out, flail answered flail,And limbs of apples, red and pale, Beside the open cottage doors,          Together shone.
They kissed me, saying I must know How sober plenty smiled for me,But round my mortal life there layAnd shall do till my dying day, Thy still and awful shadow, oh          Eternity!
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