Unforgotten

  O unforgotten!
How long ago? one spirit saith.
As long as life even unto death,
The passage of a poor frail breath.

  O unforgotten!
An unforgotten load of love,
A load of grief all griefs above,
A blank blank nest without its dove.

  As long as time is:—
No longer?  Time is but a span,
The dalliance-space of empty man:
And is this all immortals can?

  Ever and ever,
Beyond all time, beyond all space:
Now shadows darkening heart and face;
Then glory in a glorious place.

  Sad heart and spirit,
Bowed now, yea broken, for a while—
Lagging and toiling mile by mile,
Yet pressing toward the Eternal Smile.

  O joy eternal!
O youth eternal without flaw!—
Thee not the blessed Angels saw,
Rapt in august adoring awe.

  Not the dead have thee,
Not yet, O all-surpassing peace:
Not till this veiling world shall cease
And harvest yield its whole increase.

  Not the dead know thee,
Not dead nor living nor unborn:
Who in the new-sown field at morn
Can measure out the harvest corn?—

  Yet they shall know thee:
And we with them, and unborn men
With us, shall know and have thee when
The single grain shall wax to ten.