Sonnet XLII My Future

My future will not copy fair my past -I wrote that once; and thinking at my

My ministering life-angel

The word by his appealing look

To the white throne of God,

I turned at last,

And there, instead, saw thee, not

To angels in thy soul!  Then I, long

By natural ills, received the comfort fast,

While budding, at thy sight, my pilgrim's

Gave out green leaves with morning dews impearled.

I seek no copy now of life's first half:

Leave here the pages with long musing curled,

And write me new my future's epigraph,

New angel mine, unhoped for in the world!