THE QUESTION

Why may I not step from this empty room,

Where heavy round me hangs the curtained gloom,

And passing through a little darkness there,

Even as one climbs to bed an unlit stair,

Find that I know is but one step above,

And that I hunger for: my Life: my Love?

‘ T is but a curtain doth our souls divide,

A veil my eager hand might tear aside —

One step to take, one thrill, one throb, one bound,

And I have gained my Heaven, the Lost have found —

Have solved the riddle rare, the secret dread:

The vast, unfathomable secret of the Dead.

It seems but now that as I yearning stand,

I might put forth my hand and touch her hand;

That I might lift my longing eyes and trace

But for the darkness there the gracious face;

That could I hush the grosser sounds, my ear

The charmed music of her voice might hear.

She may not come to me, Alas! I know,

Else had she surely come, long, long ago.

The Conqueror Death, who save One conquers all,

Had never power to hold that soul in thrall;

No narrowest prison-house; no piled up stone

Had held her heart a captive from my own.

No,‘ t is not these: Hell's might nor Heaven's charms,

Had never power to hold her from my arms;—

‘ T is that by some inscrutable, fixed Law,

Vaster than mortal vision ever saw,

Whose sweep is worlds; whose track Eternity,

Somewhere her soul angelic waits for me:—

Waits patiently His Wisdom, whose decree

Is Wisdom's self veiled in Infinity:

Who gives us Life divine with mortal breath,

Yet in its pathway, lo! hath planted Death;

Who grants us Love our dull souls to uplift

Nearer to Him; yet tears away His Gift;

Crowns us with Reason in His image made,

Yet blinds our eyes with never lifting shade.

Who may the mystery solve?‘ T is His decree!

Can Mortal understand Infinity?

Prostrate thyself before His feet, dull clod,

Who saith, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Ah! did we surely know the joys that wait

Beyond the portal of the silent gate,

Who would a moment longer here abide,

The spectre, Sorrow, stalking at his side?

Who would not daring take the leap and be

Unbound, unfettered clean, a slave set free!