Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Legends and Lyrics. I. Sent to Heaven

Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864)

I HAD a Message to send her,

To her whom my soul loved best;

But I had my task to finish,

And she was gone home to rest.

To rest in the far bright heaven;

Oh, so far away from here,

It was vain to speak to my darling,

For I knew she could not hear!

I had a message to send her

So tender, and true, and sweet,

I longed for an Angel to bear it,

And lay it down at her feet.

I placed it, one summer evening,

On a Cloudlet’s fleecy breast;

But it faded in golden splendour,

And died in the crimson west.

I gave it the Lark next morning,

And I watched it soar and soar;

But its pinions grew faint and weary,

And it fluttered to earth once more.

To the heart of a Rose I told it;

And the perfume, sweet and rare,

Growing faint on the blue bright ether,

Was lost in the balmy air.

I laid it upon a Censer,

And I saw the incense rise;

But its clouds of rolling silver

Could not reach the far blue skies.

I cried, in my passionate longing:—

“Has the earth no Angel-friend

Who will carry my love the message

That my heart desires to send?”

Then I heard a strain of music,

So mighty, so pure, so clear,

That my very sorrow was silent,

And my heart stood still to hear.

And I felt, in my soul’s deep yearning,

At last the sure answer stir:—

“The music will go up to Heaven,

And carry my thought to her.”

It rose in harmonious rushing

Of mingled voices and strings,

And I tenderly laid my message

On the Music’s outspread wings.

I heard it float farther and farther,

In sound more perfect than speech;

Farther than sight can follow,

Farther than soul can reach.

And I know that at last my message

Has passed through the golden gate:

So my heart is no longer restless,

And I am content to wait.