V.

I know there is a heaven which is peopled not with shades,

Where the buds and flowers ne’er wither, and the rainbow never fades:

Where the mourners cease from mourning, and in smiles of joy are drest,

Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest:

Oh! there is gladness in the thought; ’tis deep, deep joy to me

To feel that those I love so well I there again shall see;

To know that though around them now my very heart-strings twine,

They’ll be forever with me there—forever more be mine!