AT LAST – A POEM

 

 

                   AT LAST – A POEM

          “AT LAST” is a poem by the American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92) .

          He is most famous for his anti-slavery writings.

          Among his quotes the most prominent is:  “Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest ones are “It might have been.” The purpose of this  quote is to  expresses the profound melancholy caused by lost opportunities and unfulfilled possibilities.      

          In the poem titled “At Last”, the poet seeks God’s guidance and comfort when he is completing his life’s journey.  

          According to a literary critic the poem deals with the themes of – mortality, faith and hope for a peaceful afterlife.

          The full poem reads as follows:

When on my day of life the night is falling,
And, in the winds from unsunned spaces blown,
I hear far voices out of darkness calling
My feet to paths unknown,

Thou who hast made my home of life so pleasant,
Leave not its tenant when its walls decay;
O Love Divine, O Helper ever present,
Be Thou my strength and stay!

Be near me when all else is from me drifting
Earth, sky, home's pictures, days of shade and shine,
And kindly faces to my own uplifting
The love which answers mine.

I have but Thee, my Father! let Thy spirit
Be with me then to comfort and uphold;
No gate of pearl, no branch of palm I merit,
Nor street of shining gold.

Suffice it if--my good and ill unreckoned,
And both forgiven through Thy abounding grace--
I find myself by hands familiar beckoned
Unto my fitting place.

Some humble door among Thy many mansions,
Some sheltering shade where sin and striving cease,
And flows forever through heaven's green expansions
The river of Thy peace.

There, from the music round about me stealing,
I fain would learn the new and holy song,
And find at last, beneath Thy trees of healing,
The life for which I long.

                                                            **********

G.R.Kanwal

30 May 2025