72
LOOKING BEYOND.
Oh, Life! oh, Death! oh, mystic veil of sense,
That stretches 'tween this world and that to come!
Will that life be sufficient recompense
For what we suffer here in silence dumb?
That stretches 'tween this world and that to come!
Will that life be sufficient recompense
For what we suffer here in silence dumb?
Our deepest sorrows never can be told!
Our ghastliest wounds we cover up from sight!
The griefs that make our youthful brows grow old
Are those we hide in silence and in night.
Our ghastliest wounds we cover up from sight!
The griefs that make our youthful brows grow old
Are those we hide in silence and in night.
I wonder if the dead have hope, or thought,
For us who sorrow on in mortal clay!
I wonder if their heavenly lives have brought
Them so much joy, they never look away—
For us who sorrow on in mortal clay!
I wonder if their heavenly lives have brought
Them so much joy, they never look away—
Away to earth! where those they loved are still
Breasting the stormy waves of adverse fate,
Looking, with eyes so mutely pitiful,
For the unfolding of the golden gate.
Breasting the stormy waves of adverse fate,
Looking, with eyes so mutely pitiful,
For the unfolding of the golden gate.
I grow so weary, sometimes, it would be
Sweet as a mother's kiss upon my brow,
To know that those who've crossed the Unknown Sea,
Those whom I loved, have pity for me now;
Sweet as a mother's kiss upon my brow,
To know that those who've crossed the Unknown Sea,
Those whom I loved, have pity for me now;
To know that when I sorrow they look down
With tender eyes from Immortality,—
To know that those who wear a fadeless crown
In heaven's glory, still have care for me.
With tender eyes from Immortality,—
To know that those who wear a fadeless crown
In heaven's glory, still have care for me.
