- THE OTHER WORLD
by: Harriet Beecher Stowe
(1811-1896)
- T lies around us like a cloud,
- A world we do not see;
- Yet the same closing of an eye
- May bring us there to be.
-
- Its gentle breezes fan our cheek;
- Amid our worldly cares,
- Its gentle voices whisper love,
- And mingle with our prayers.
-
- Sweet hearts around us throb and beat,
- Sweet helping hands are stirred,
- And palpitates the veil between
- With breathings almost heard.
-
- The silence, awful, sweet, and calm,
- They have no power to break;
- For mortal words are not for them
- To utter or partake.
-
- So thin, so soft, so sweet, they glide,
- So near to press they seem,
- They lull us gently to our rest,
- They melt into our dream.
-
- And in the hush of rest they bring
- 'T is easy now to see
- How lovely and how sweet a pass
- The hour of death may be; --
-
- To close the eye, and close the ear,
- Wrapped in a trance of bliss,
- And, gently drawn in loving arms,
- To swoon to that -- from this, --
-
- Scarce knowing if we wake or sleep,
- Scarce asking where we are,
- To feel all evil sink away,
- All sorrow and all care.
-
- Sweet souls around us! watch us still;
- Press nearer to our side;
- Into our thoughts, into our prayers,
- With gentle helpings glide.
-
- Let death between us be as naught,
- A dried and vanished stream;
- Your joy be the reality,
- Our suffering like the dream.
"The Other World" is reprinted
from Religious Poems. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Boston: Ticknor
and Fields, 1867. |
MORE POEMS BY HARRIET BEECHER STOWE |
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