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Home  »  An American Anthology, 1787–1900  »  1019 My Letter

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Grace DenioLitchfield

1019 My Letter

FROM far away, from far away,

It journeyed swiftly night and day,

It rested not. With cruel haste

It crossed the ocean’s trackless waste.

It swerved no moment in its flight

Through mist and storm and deepest night.

No mercy prompted it to stay,

No pity moved it to delay.

O’er seas that rose up to detain,

Silent as Death it sped amain.

Through cities crowding close and strong,

Undazed, untired, it fled along.

No voice cried out through all the land,

Great Heaven saw, yet stirred no hand.

No angel, kinder than the rest,

Held his white shield before my breast.

Across the land, across the sea,

Straight, swift, and sure, it came to me!

Unlet, unhindered, undeterred,

Straight, swift, and sure, it brought me word!