It lies around us like a cloud, <br />A world we do not see; <br />Yet the sweet closing of an eye <br />May bring us there to be. <br /> <br />Its gentle breezes fan our cheek; <br />Amid our worldly cares, <br />Its gentle voices whisper love, <br />And mingle with our prayers. <br /> <br />Sweet hearts around us throb and beat, <br />Sweet helping hands are stirred, <br />And palpitates the veil between <br />With breathings almost heard. <br /> <br />The silence, awful, sweet, and calm, <br />They have no power to break; <br />For mortal words are not for them <br />To utter or partake. <br /> <br />So thin, so soft, so sweet, they glide, <br />So near to press they seem, <br />They lull us gently to our rest, <br />They melt into our dream. <br /> <br />And in the hush of rest they bring <br />'T is easy now to see <br />How lovely and how sweet a pass <br />The hour of death may be; - <br /> <br />To close the eye, and close the ear, <br />Wrapped in a trance of bliss, <br />And, gently drawn in loving arms, <br />To swoon to that - from this, - <br /> <br />Scarce knowing if we wake or sleep, <br />Scarce asking where we are, <br />To feel all evil sink away, <br />All sorrow and all care. <br /> <br />Sweet souls around us! watch us still; <br />Press nearer to our side; <br />Into our thoughts, into our prayers, <br />With gentle helpings glide. <br /> <br />Let death between us be as naught, <br />A dried and vanished stream; <br />Your joy be the reality, <br />Our suffering life the dream.<br /><br />Harriet Beecher Stowe<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-other-world-2/
