AFTER LONG WAITING
After long waiting when my soul puts off This mortal vesture and is free to go Through all God’s universe in search of thee, How shall it find thee, O, beloved and lost?
Through the wide, shadowy spaces, through the deep Profound abysses where the dim spheres roll; Through starry mazes and through violet seas, And purple reaches stretched from world to world;
Beyond the bounds of all it hath conceived, Where knowledge falters and where reason fails, And only faith’s strong pinion dares to soar, How shall it make its lonely way to thee?
In that far realm what myriads abide! When I have reached it, wilt thou find me, dear? One grain of sand beside the unresting sea— One blade of grass where endless prairies roll!
I shall have changed, O love, I shall have changed! The face you knew I shall no longer wear; For few or many though the years may be, My youth fled with thee to the shore unknown.
I have grown older here, whilst thou beneath The tree of life hast found thy youth again; I have grown faint, while strong, exultant, free, Thy swift, glad feet scale the blue heights of God.
O friend and lover, go thou not too far! Delay, delay, thine upward soaring flight, Lest when I come, all tremulous with joy, I fail to find thee on the heavenly hills!
Transcriber's Notes:
The cover image was created by the transcriber, and is in the public domain.
Uncertain or antiquated spellings or ancient words were not corrected.
Errors in punctuation and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected unless otherwise noted.
Typographical errors have been silently corrected but other variations in spelling and punctuation remain unaltered.
Where double quotes have been repeated at the beginnings of consecutive stanzas, they have been omitted for clarity.