Epilogue

(From “The Flower of Old Japan”)

CAROL, every violet has

Heaven for a looking-glass!

Every little valley lies

Under many-clouded skies;

Every little cottage stands

Girt about with boundless lands.

Every little glimmering pond

Claims the mighty shores beyond—

Shores no seamen ever hailed,

Seas no ship has ever sailed.

All the shores when day is done

Fade into the setting sun,

So the story tries to teach

More than can be told in speech.

Beauty is a fading flower,

Truth is but a wizard’s tower,

Where a solemn death-bell tolls,

And a forest round it rolls.

We have come by curious ways

To the light that holds the days;

We have sought in haunts of fear

For that all-enfolding sphere:

And lo! it was not far, but near.

We have found, O foolish-fond,

The shore that has no shore beyond.

Deep in every heart it lies

With its untranscended skies;

For what heaven should bend above

Hearts that own the heaven of love?

Carol, Carol, we have come

Back to heaven, back to home.