Classic Poem

Somewhere , my friend, in the beautiful skies,
Awaiting us lovely and clear,
We shall find all beauty that leaves our eyes
So vacant in vanishing here:
Not the human alone has died
To go up and be glorified.

I shall find my childhood playing there
In the grass where it used to play,
And see our red-birds brighten the air;
Again as a girl I shall stray
On the hills where the snow-drops grew,
And hear the wild doves in the dew.

I shall feel the darkness dripping with rain
On the old home-roof; I shall see
The white rose-bud in the yard again,
And the sweet-brier climbing the tree,
With its pretty young blooms that fell
Below to be drown'd in the well.

And sometimes a night, with blossoming hours
In a crescent's early gleam,
Will let a Dream flutter out of its flowers,
With no other name but a Dream,
To my breast, with a timid grace
And wings o'er its blushing face.

Ah! you smile in the dark; you smile, and refuse
My faith in these sweet faded things;
But I tell you I know that my soul would lose
One-half of the strength in its wings
If these were not keeping their light,
As the angels in Heaven, to-night.