After Our Likeness
Ada Cambridge
1844 to 1926
Track 1
Reconstruct the poem by dragging each line into its correct position. Your goal is to reassemble the original poem as accurately as possible. As you move the lines, you'll see whether your arrangement is correct, helping you explore the poem's flow and meaning. Take your time, enjoy the process, and discover how the poet's words come together to create something truly beautiful.
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More lovely for the trouble and the tears.
The heart is hush'd. Truly God's likeness then—
A little shadow of a childish face,
Stirred up and troubled like a stormy sea;—
When this child's beauty will have all return'd,
This self-same face, yet like the face of Him,
Ah! while I look, and trace each tender line,
Bring me the echo of the words God said.
When the sweet eyes are laid asleep, and when
When life's hard lessons have been conned and learn'd;
They will re-settle when the soul is still'd,
Before me now a little picture lies—
Some day the earthly shadows will be cast
When earth's hopes are relinquish'd, unfulfill'd.
Made in our image—sure 'tis that we see,
They will re-settle in those after-years
This self-same face, but with the image bright,
Pictured those glorious lineaments, will be
They will re-settle in the calm of death,
The light wherein the little features shine,
Some day the lucid waters, in which lie
Strange, mystic light, so undefined and faint,
All the soft outlines, beautiful and true,
But they will yet re-settle—by-and-by.
Of thought and wisdom on her lips and eyes.
Across that sunshine—it may be to dim
Fair, oval, broad-brow'd face—small, delicate head—
Awhile the visible countenance of Him;
By the world's sin and passion undefiled—
Ay, as I look, it seems quite plain to me.
But 'twill be there—the likeness—to the last.
The dear face in that perfect purity,
Nevermore undefined, and faint, and dim;
Childishly sweet, yet with the dawning grace
The pure reflection will shine out again
So far too pure for any words to paint—
Its mortal features clothed with the divine.
The mirror clear, unsullied by a breath.
Transparent skin, with blue veins shining through—
God's likeness, in the fair face of a child,
I think most of the day when I shall see
Its passions, its wild longings, and its pain;
'Tis a reflection of the Face divine.
In glory and in beauty infinite.