After Our Likeness

Before me now a little picture lies-

A little shadow of a childish face,

Childishly sweet, yet with the dawning grace

Of thought and wisdom on her lips and eyes.

Fair, oval, broad-brow’d face-small, delicate head-

Transparent skin, with blue veins shining through-

All the soft outlines, beautiful and true,

Bring me the echo of the words “God said.”

Made “in our image”-sure ’tis that we see,

God’s likeness, in the fair face of a child,

By the world’s sin and passion undefiled-

Ay, as I look, it seems quite plain to me.

The light wherein the little features shine,

Strange, mystic light, so undefined and faint,

So far too pure for any words to paint-

‘Tis a reflection of the Face divine.

Some day the earthly shadows will be cast

Across that sunshine-it may be to dim

Awhile the visible countenance of Him;

But ’twill be there-the likeness-to the last.

Some day the lucid waters, in which lie

Pictured those glorious lineaments, will be

Stirred up and troubled like a stormy sea;-

But they will yet re-settle-by-and-by.

They will re-settle when the soul is still’d,

Its passions, its wild longings, and its pain;

The pure reflection will shine out again

When earth’s hopes are relinquish’d, unfulfill’d.

They will re-settle in those after-years

When life’s hard lessons have been conned and learn’d;

When this child’s beauty will have all return’d,

More lovely for the trouble and the tears.

They will re-settle in the calm of death,

When the sweet eyes are laid asleep, and when

The heart is hush’d. Truly God’s likeness then-

The mirror clear, unsullied by a breath.

Ah! while I look, and trace each tender line,

I think most of the day when I shall see

The dear face in that perfect purity,

Its mortal features clothed with the divine.

This self-same face, but with the image bright,

Nevermore undefined, and faint, and dim;

This self-same face, yet like the face of Him,

In glory and in beauty infinite.

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Poems in English 

• Sir Philip Sidney; Astrophel and Stella: XXIII by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Ring Out Your Bells by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Psalm 19: Coeli Enarrant by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Philomela by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Loving In Truth, And Fain In Verse My Love To Show by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Leave Me, O Love Which Reachest But To Dust by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Come Sleep, O Sleep! The Certain Knot Of Peace by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel and Stella: XXXIX by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel and Stella: XXXIII by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel and Stella: XX by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel and Stella: XV by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel and Stella: XLI by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel and Stella: XCII by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel and Stella VII: WhenNature Made her Chief Work by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet XXXI by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel And Stella-Sonnet LIV by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel And Stella; Sonnet CVIII by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel and Stella LXXXIV: HIGHWAY by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel and Stella: LXXI by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney
• Astrophel and Stella: LXIV by Sir Philip Sidney by Philip Sidney

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