Something Beyond

Mary (Clemmer) (Ames) Hudson (1839–1884)

SOMETHING beyond! though now, with joy unfound,

The life-task falleth from thy weary hand,

Be brave, be patient! In the fair beyond

Thou ’lt understand.

Thou ’lt understand why our most royal hours

Couch sorrowful slaves bound by low nature’s greed;

Why the celestial soul ’s a minion made

To narrowest need.

In this pent sphere of being incomplete,

The imperfect fragment of a beauteous whole,

For yon rare regions, where the perfect meet,

Sighs the lone soul.

Sighs for the perfect! Far and fair it lies;

It hath no half-fed friendships perishing fleet,

No partial insights, no averted eyes,

No loves unmeet.

Something beyond! Light for our clouded eyes!

In this dark dwelling, in its shrouded beams,

Our best waits masked, few pierce the soul’s disguise;

How sad it seems!

Something beyond! Ah, if it were not so,

Darker would be thy face, O brief To-day;

Earthward we ’d bow beneath life’s smiting woe,

Powerless to pray.

Something beyond! The immortal morning stands

Above the night; clear shines her precious brow;

The pendulous star in her transfigured hands

Brightens the Now.