| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 325. The Other World |
| | | By Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe |
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| IT lies around us like a cloud, | |
| The world we do not see; | |
| Yet the sweet closing of an eye | |
| May bring us there to be. | |
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| Its gentle breezes fan our cheeks | 5 |
| Amid our worldly cares; | |
| Its gentle voices whisper love, | |
| And mingle with our prayers. | |
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| Sweet hearts around us throb and beat, | |
| Sweet helping hands are stirred, | 10 |
| And palpitates the veil between, | |
| With breathings almost heard. | |
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| The silence, awful, sweet, and calm, | |
| They have no power to break; | |
| For mortal words are not for them | 15 |
| To utter or partake. | |
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| So thin, so soft, so sweet they glide, | |
| So near to press they seem, | |
| They lull us gently to our rest, | |
| They melt into our dream. | 20 |
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| And, in the hush of rest they bring, | |
| ’T is easy now to see | |
| How lovely and how sweet a pass | |
| The hour of death may be;— | |
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| To close the eye and close the ear, | 25 |
| Wrapped in a trance of bliss, | |
| And, gently drawn in loving arms, | |
| To swoon from that to this:— | |
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| Scarce knowing if we wake or sleep, | |
| Scarce asking where we are, | 30 |
| To feel all evil sink away, | |
| All sorrow and all care! | |
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| Sweet souls around us! watch us still, | |
| Press nearer to our side; | |
| Into our thoughts, into our prayers, | 35 |
| With gentle helping glide. | |
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| Let death between us be as naught, | |
| A dried and vanished stream; | |
| Your joy be the reality, | |
| Our suffering life the dream. | 40 |
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