Classic Poem

If our dead could come back to us,
Who so desire it,
And be as they were before,
Would we require it?

Would we bid them share again
Our weakness, foregoing
All their higher blessedness
Of being and knowing?

For them the triumph is won,
The fight completed;
Do we wish that the doubtful strife
Should be repeated?

Would we call them from the calm
Of all assurance
To the perils that might prove
Past their endurance?

God is kind, since He will not heed
Our bitter yearning,
And the gates of heaven are shut
'Gainst all returning.