Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904. | | | | IV. Comfort and Cheer | | Something Beyond | | Mary (Clemmer) (Ames) Hudson (1839–1884) |
| | | SOMETHING beyond! though now, with joy unfound, | |
| The life-task falleth from thy weary hand, | |
| Be brave, be patient! In the fair beyond | |
| Thou ’lt understand. | |
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| Thou ’lt understand why our most royal hours | 5 |
| Couch sorrowful slaves bound by low nature’s greed; | |
| Why the celestial soul ’s a minion made | |
| To narrowest need. | |
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| In this pent sphere of being incomplete, | |
| The imperfect fragment of a beauteous whole, | 10 |
| For yon rare regions, where the perfect meet, | |
| Sighs the lone soul. | |
| |
| Sighs for the perfect! Far and fair it lies; | |
| It hath no half-fed friendships perishing fleet, | |
| No partial insights, no averted eyes, | 15 |
| No loves unmeet. | |
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| Something beyond! Light for our clouded eyes! | |
| In this dark dwelling, in its shrouded beams, | |
| Our best waits masked, few pierce the soul’s disguise; | |
| How sad it seems! | 20 |
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| Something beyond! Ah, if it were not so, | |
| Darker would be thy face, O brief To-day; | |
| Earthward we ’d bow beneath life’s smiting woe, | |
| Powerless to pray. | |
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| Something beyond! The immortal morning stands | 25 |
| Above the night; clear shines her precious brow; | |
| The pendulous star in her transfigured hands | |
| Brightens the Now. | | | | |
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