In the silence of my heart, <br />I will spend an hour with thee, <br />When my love shall rend apart <br />All the veil of mystery: <br /> <br />All that dim and misty veil <br />That shut in between our souls <br />When Death cried, 'Ho, maiden, hail!' <br />And your barque sped on the shoals. <br /> <br />On the shoals? Nay, wrongly said. <br />On the breeze of Death that sweeps <br />Far from life, thy soul has sped <br />Out into unsounded deeps. <br /> <br />I shall take an hour and come <br />Sailing, darling, to thy side. <br />Wind nor sea may keep me from <br />Soft communings with my bride. <br /> <br />I shall rest my head on thee <br />As I did long days of yore, <br />When a calm, untroubled sea <br />Rocked thy vessel at the shore. <br /> <br />I shall take thy hand in mine, <br />And live o'er the olden days <br />When thy smile to me was wine,-- <br />Golden wine thy word of praise, <br /> <br />For the carols I had wrought <br />In my soul's simplicity; <br />For the petty beads of thought <br />Which thine eyes alone could see. <br /> <br />Ah, those eyes, love-blind, but keen <br />For my welfare and my weal! <br />Tho' the grave-door shut between, <br />Still their love-lights o'er me steal. <br /> <br />I can see thee thro' my tears, <br />As thro' rain we see the sun. <br />What tho' cold and cooling years <br />Shall their bitter courses run,-- <br /> <br />I shall see thee still and be <br />Thy true lover evermore, <br />And thy face shall be to me <br />Dear and helpful as before. <br /> <br />Death may vaunt and Death may boast, <br />But we laugh his pow'r to scorn; <br />He is but a slave at most,-- <br />Night that heralds coming morn. <br /> <br />I shall spend an hour with thee <br />Day by day, my little bride. <br />True love laughs at mystery, <br />Crying, 'Doors of Death, fly wide.'<br /><br />Paul Laurence Dunbar<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/communion-30/
