Life Beyond

I.

THE wish behind the thought is the soul’s star
Of faith, and out of earth we build our heaven
Life to each unschooled child of time has given
A fairy wand, with which he thinks to unbar
The dark gate to a region vast and far,
Where all is gained at length for which he has striven,
All loss requited, all offenses shriven,
All toil o’erpassed, effaced each battle-scar.
But ah, what heaven of rest could countervail
The ever-widening thought, the endless stress
Of action, whereinto the heart is born ?
What sphere so blessèd it. could over-bless
With sweets the soul, when all such gifts must fail
If from its chosen work that soul were torn ?

II.

Not for a rapture unalloyed I ask ;
Not for a recompense for all I miss.
A banquet of the gods in heavenly bliss,
A realm in whose warm sunshine I may bask,
Life without discipline or earnest task,
Could ill repay the unfinished work of this;
Nay, e’en to clasp some long-lost Beatrice
In bowers of Paradise, the mortal mask
Dropped from her face, now glorified and bright.
But I would fain take up what here I left
All crude and incomplete ; would toil and strive
To regain the power of which I am bereft
By slow decay ami death, with fuller light
To aid the larger life that may survive.

Christopher Pearse Cranch.