The Valleys of Rest.
Reading edition
I.
What matters it, Dear, though the burdens be sore? In the Valleys of Rest we shall weary no more, And the music of mirth with its solace shall sing All the songs of delight the beatitudes bring!
II.
Nevermore shall the days with the sorrows be sad Where the love-roses bloom and the joy-mornings glad— Where the violets dream through the east and the west Of the beautiful lands in the Valleys of Rest!
III.
There the heart from its grief in a moment shall cease, And the soul hush its cries in the cadence of peace, And the life with the laughter of rhapsody blest Shall rejoice through the years in the Valleys of Rest.
IV.
O, the dear dreams that fled down the deeps of the past That await with their welcomes our coming at last; And the lips of our love that our lips never pressed Smiling there for their own in the Valleys of Rest!
V.
O, the raptures that stay for our glorified feet When the joys of the past and the future shall meet,— When the hopes of the years shall return from their quest For the love-crowns of life in the Valleys of Rest!
VI.
Ah, the days, Dear, the days with their griefs and their glees Sail away on swift ships o'er eternity's seas; But at last we shall anchor with Love for our guest On the Paradise shores by the Valleys of Rest!