Poems of Nature, Poems Subjective and Reminiscent and Religious Poems, Complete

FORGIVENESS.

     My heart was heavy, for its trust had been
     Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
     So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men,
     One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
     The green mounds of the village burial-place;
     Where, pondering how all human love and hate
     Find one sad level; and how, soon or late,
     Wronged and wrongdoer, each with meekened face,
     And cold hands folded over a still heart,
     Pass the green threshold of our common grave,
     Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
     Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
     Our common sorrow, like a nighty wave,
     Swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave!

     1846.