One year ago,--a ringing voice, <br />A clear blue eye, <br />And clustering curls of sunny hair, <br />Too fair to die. <br /> <br />Only a year,--no voice, no smile, <br />No glance of eye, <br />No clustering curls of golden hair, <br />Fair but to die! <br /> <br />One year ago,--what loves, what schemes <br />Far into life! <br />What joyous hopes, what high resolves, <br />What generous strife! <br /> <br />The silent picture on the wall, <br />The burial-stone, <br />Of all that beauty, life, and joy, <br />Remain alone! <br /> <br />One year,--one year,--one little year, <br />And so much gone! <br />And yet the even flow of life <br />Moves calmly on. <br /> <br />The grave grows green, the flowers bloom fair, <br />Above that head; <br />No sorrowing tint of leaf or spray <br />Says he is dead. <br /> <br />No pause or hush of merry birds <br />That sing above <br />Tells us how coldly sleeps below <br />The form we love. <br /> <br />Where hast thou been this year, beloved? <br />What hast thou seen,-- <br />What visions fair, what glorious life, <br />Where hast thou been? <br /> <br />The veil! the veil! so thin, so strong! <br />'Twixt us and thee; <br />The mystic veil! when shall it fall, <br />That we may see? <br /> <br />Not dead, not sleeping, not even gone, <br />But present still, <br />And waiting for the coming hour <br />Of God's sweet will. <br /> <br />Lord of the living and the dead, <br />Our Saviour dear! <br />We lay in silence at thy feet <br />This sad, sad year.<br /><br />Harriet Beecher Stowe<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/only-a-year/
