Classic Poem

Veiled within the evening shadows,
Is a lately widowed heart,
Pondering on the awful mystery
That has forced two lives apart.

Yet with hopes that always linger
Of the nearness of the dead,
Of the mayhap here and after,
Is she vaguely comforted;

Till her timid trust is startled
By a memory astir
Whom she mourns had loved another
Ere he wooed and wedded her.

In the dark of soul and nature
Do these haunting questions fly:
Was my union made forever?
Who is mine and whose am I?

Tortured spirit! Sweet the message
God hath sent the human heart,
That one day we shall be like Him,
When we see no more in part.

Like Him! Those words hold the glory
That can solve thy ghosts away;
Like Him? Then of His All-presence
We may catch a single ray.

Countless myriads of spirits,
God, at once, is always near;
Yet not one can find love's limit,
Or its interruption fear.

Then may not a soul in Heaven
Ever walk with each of two
In unalienable nearness?
Wherefore put the whose and who?

In thine own love find the earnest
Of some rich, divine reply;
Blest with that, will be no asking
“Who is mine, and whose am I?”