What she promised in the darkness, Who can tell? But upon that rock-ribbed shore Burns a beacon evermore! And beside it, all the night, Hilda guards the lonely light, Though what vowed she in the darkness, None may tell!
Spinning, spinning by the sea, All the night! While her candle, gleaming wide O’er the restless, rolling tide, Guides with steady, changeless ray The lone fisher up the bay, Hilda spins beside the sea, Through the night!
Fifty years of patient spinning By the sea! Old and worn, she sleeps to-day, While the sunshine gilds the bay; But her candle, shining clear, Every night of all the year, Still is telling of her spinning By the sea!
HEREAFTER
O land beyond the setting sun! O realm more fair than poet’s dream! How clear thy silver rivers run, How bright thy golden glories gleam!
Earth holds no counterpart of thine; The dark-browed Orient, jewel-crowned, Pales as she bows before thy shrine, Shrouded in mystery profound.
The dazzling North, the stately West, Whose waters flow from mount to sea; The South, flower-wreathed in languid rest— What are they all, compared with thee?
All lands, all realms beneath yon dome, Where God’s own hand hath hung the stars, To thee with humblest homage come, O world beyond the crystal bars!
Thou blest Hereafter! Mortal tongue Hath striven in vain thy speech to learn, And Fancy wanders, lost among The flowery paths for which we yearn.
But well we know that fair and bright, Far beyond human ken or dream, Too glorious for our feeble sight, Thy skies of cloudless azure beam.