Could we but know

The land that ends our dark, uncertain travel,

Where lie those happier hills and meadows low,—

Ah, if beyond the spirit’s inmost cavil,

Aught of that country could we surely know,

Who would not go?

Might we but hear

The hovering angels’ high imagined chorus,

Or catch, betimes, with wakeful eyes and clear,

One radiant vista of the realm before us,—