A NEW WORLD
“I know,” he said,
“The thunder and the lightning have past by
And all the earth is black, and burned, and dead;
But, friend, the grass will grow again, the flowers
Again will bloom, the summer birds will sing,
And the all-healing sun will shine once more.”
“Blind prophecy,” she answered in her woe.
Yet still, as time wore on, the prophet's words
Came true,—but not all true. (So shall it be
With all who here may suffer mortal loss.)
Ere long the grass, the flowers, the birds, the sun
Once more made bright the bleak and desolate earth;
They came once more, those joys of other days;
She felt them, moved among them, and was glad.
Glad—glad! O mocking world! They came once more,
But not the same to her. Familiar they
As a remembered dream, and beautiful—
But changed, all changed, the whole world changed forever.
