There is a river and there is a boat
  (I read it all in a far-away tale)—­
  O faster!  O faster! you do but float;
  Pull away with your oars, shake out your sail!

  A woman, I know, must sail in a skiff,
  And reach a ship ere it reaches the sea;
  But it is a wonderful matter if
  The woman who sits here is really me!

  O faster!  O faster! you scarcely stir—­
  The ship has grown large that was but a speck! 
  We have reached the ship—­we have boarded her—­
  And I SEE who is standing on her deck!

  I see who stands there, I hear and see
  His incredulous joy and startled cry,
  His beautiful wonder at sight of me;
  I feel his embraces, and then—­I die!

PART IV.

  I know not how long I was lying dead;
  I know not what happen’d day after day: 
  But I know whose breast supported my head;
  I know in whose arms I passively lay.

  I know whose voice I was hearing again;
  With no vivid emotion through me sent,
  But only with that sweet absence of pain
  The young call repose, and the old, content.

  I know of the presence that o’er me shed
  Through all that I suffer’d a perfect ease;
  I know all this because I am dead—­
  I suppose the dead can know what they please!

Can I be dead?  It is foolish to die,
Earth shining brighter than any bright star. 
Death, do you know it is Harry and I? 
Heaven is here—­must I seek it afar?

Death, seize thy prey from the world-weary track;
Let not the happy by thee be remov’d;
Slowly and softly and sweetly come back,
Life that she loves to a girl that is lov’d!

* * * * *

Cut through the waves, happy ship ’neath my feet;
Scatter thy prow with beneficent spray! 
Never an admiral leading a fleet
Felt as triumphant as I do to-day!

Ocean around us, and Heaven above;
Hands clasp’d together in innocent bliss;
Heart meeting heart with the fulness of love—­
Can there be anything sweeter than this?

  Seeking a home on a far-distant shore,
  Mid gigantic forests and splendid flow’rs,
  Where sorrow cannot bewilder us more,
  Or fear reach a solitude perfect as ours.

  Crossing blue oceans ’neath heavens as blue,
  Seeking new worlds with new winters and springs;
  Even the old stars are changing to new,
  Lovely confusion of wonderful things!

  Almost forgetting to feel a regret—­
  Almost forgotten the world whence we came—­
  Only our hearts, Harry, cannot forget;
  Only our love will be ever the same!

  Talking together through nights and through days;
  Talking together through days and through nights;
  Facing futurity’s fathomless haze;
  Piercing its shadows with delicate lights.