The Other World
The Other World
Original Text
Collected Poems of Harriet Beecher Stowe, ed. John Michael Moran, Jr. (Hartford: Transcendental Books, 1967): 27. PS 2951 M6 Robarts Library
1It lies around us like a cloud,
2 A world we do not see;
3Yet the sweet closing of an eye
4 May bring us there to be.
5Its gentle breezes fan our cheek;
6 Amid our worldly cares,
7Its gentle voices whisper love,
8 And mingle with our prayers.
9Sweet hearts around us throb and beat,
10 Sweet helping hands are stirred,
11And palpitates the veil between
12 With breathings almost heard.
13The silence, awful, sweet, and calm,
14 They have no power to break;
15For mortal words are not for them
16 To utter or partake.
17So thin, so soft, so sweet, they glide,
18 So near to press they seem,
19They lull us gently to our rest,
20 They melt into our dream.
21And in the hush of rest they bring
22 'T is easy now to see
23How lovely and how sweet a pass
24 The hour of death may be; --
25To close the eye, and close the ear,
26 Wrapped in a trance of bliss,
27And, gently drawn in loving arms,
28 To swoon to that -- from this, --
29Scarce knowing if we wake or sleep,
30 Scarce asking where we are,
31To feel all evil sink away,
32 All sorrow and all care.
33Sweet souls around us! watch us still;
34 Press nearer to our side;
35Into our thoughts, into our prayers,
36 With gentle helpings glide.
37Let death between us be as naught,
38 A dried and vanished stream;
39Your joy be the reality,
40 Our suffering life the dream.
Publication Start Year
1867
Publication Notes
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, "The Other World," Religious Poems (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867): 19-21.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2002
Rhyme
Form