By the Sea, and Other Verses

<h2><SPAN name="SOARING_UPWARD" id="SOARING_UPWARD">SOARING UPWARD</SPAN></h2> <div class="blockquot"><p>A. G. M., lingering on the threshold of eternity, looked lovingly back to tell of the glory revealed to her purified vision. "Angels are waiting," she whispered, "and all is beautiful, beautiful." Then, as her spirit winged its happy way, a sweet murmur again was heard, and the words were: "Soaring upward, upward into Heaven."</p> </div> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">They call thee dead. They say that thou art gone,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Forevermore from earth. It is not so;<br/></span> <span class="i0">I know thy gentle spirit will return<br/></span> <span class="i2">And linger fondly round the loved below.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">They call thee dead. And now thou art not ours;<br/></span> <span class="i2">"God touched thee," for thy work on earth was done.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Thy presence was to us like summer flowers;<br/></span> <span class="i2">And they are faded now; and thou art gone.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">I had not thought, fair girl, that thou couldst die;<br/></span> <span class="i2">I knew thee gentle, innocent and gay;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And dreamed not that the brightness of thine eye,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Was destined thus so soon to fade away.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">'Tis well: "He giveth His beloved sleep,"&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i2">O Sleeper, thou so early loved and blest!<br/></span> <span class="i0">Say, were it wrong, if we who linger weep,<br/></span> <span class="i2">And long to sleep, like thee, and be at rest?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Ay, we who linger should not idlers be;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Day hath appointed work from morn till even;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And while we wait 'tis sweet to think of thee<br/></span> <span class="i2">As "soaring upward, upward into heaven!"<br/></span></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />