Zophiel’s Lament Over Altheetor Poem by Maria Gowen Brooks

AND thus, at length his plaintive lip express'd
The mitigated pang; 't is sometimes so
When grief meets genius in the mortal breast,
And words, most deeply sweet, betray subsided woe.

'Thou'rt gone, Altheëtor; of thy gentle breath
Guiltless am I, but bear the penalty!
Oh! is there one to whom thine earthly death
Can cause the sorrow it has caused to me?

'Cold, cold, and hush'd, is that fond, faithful breast;
Oh! of the breath of God too much was there!
It swell'd, aspired, it could not be compress'd —
But gain'd a bliss fair nature could not bear.

'Oh! good and true beyond thy mortal birth!
What high-soul'd angel help'd in forming thee?
Haply thou wert what I had been, if earth
Had been the element composing me.

'Banish'd from heaven so long, what there transpires,
This weary exiled ear may rarely meet.
But it is whisper'd that the unquell'd desires
Another spirit for each forfeit seat,

'Left vacant by our fall. That spirit placed
In mortal form, must every trial bear,
'Midst all that can pollute; and, if defaced
But by one stain, it may not enter there.

'Though all the earth is wing'd, from bound to bound;
Though heaven desires, and angels watch, and pray
To see their ranks with fair completion crown'd;
So few to bless their utmost search are found,
That half in heaven have ceased to hope the day;
And pensive seraphs' sighs, o'er heavenly harps resound.

'And when, long wandering from his blissful height,
One like to thee some quick-eyed spirit views,
He springs to heaven, more radiant from delight,
And heaven's blue domes ring loud with rapture at the news.

'Yet oft the being, by all heaven beloved,
(So doubtful every good, in world like this
Some fiend corrupts ere ripe to be removed:
And tears are seen in eyes made but to float in bliss.'