 | The poetical works of Lucy Larcom |  |
29
BY AND BY.
We built a bridge across the gulf
That held us separate here;
Our perfect faith was more than sight;
The far was as the near.
We said, “Though glad things out of reach
Above us float and fly,
More gladness and more beauty still
Await us, by and by.”
That held us separate here;
Our perfect faith was more than sight;
The far was as the near.
We said, “Though glad things out of reach
Above us float and fly,
More gladness and more beauty still
Await us, by and by.”
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Thy heart to mine, and mine to thine,
Said, “Only true be thou,
Nor lull thyself with alien dreams,
Nor break the unspoken vow;
And we, the storm-cloud overpast,
The thunder-crash rolled by,
Shall meet, and cross the rainbow-bridge
In sunshine, by and by.”
Said, “Only true be thou,
Nor lull thyself with alien dreams,
Nor break the unspoken vow;
And we, the storm-cloud overpast,
The thunder-crash rolled by,
Shall meet, and cross the rainbow-bridge
In sunshine, by and by.”
Who saw that beauteous rainbow-bridge
Break into shreds of air,
Till yawning, gray, and measureless,
The sullen gulfs lay bare?
Alas! it is not as it was!
Where are we, thou and I,
Left with the faint, receding breath
Of echo, “By and by?”
Break into shreds of air,
Till yawning, gray, and measureless,
The sullen gulfs lay bare?
Alas! it is not as it was!
Where are we, thou and I,
Left with the faint, receding breath
Of echo, “By and by?”
And fainter, farther yet, the sound
Dies out in blankness blue:
Do all abysses gape, unbridged,
All seas lie shoreless, too?
Is Heaven itself a mist, a cheat?
Nay! the heart's lonely cry,
Through hollow depths of utter loss,
Rings loyal,—“By and by!”
Dies out in blankness blue:
Do all abysses gape, unbridged,
All seas lie shoreless, too?
Is Heaven itself a mist, a cheat?
Nay! the heart's lonely cry,
Through hollow depths of utter loss,
Rings loyal,—“By and by!”
| The poetical works of Lucy Larcom | |