BEYOND.

From her own fair dominions, Long since, with shorn pinions, My spirit was banished: But above her still hover, in vigils and dreams, Ethereal visitants, voices, and gleams, That forever remind her Of something behind her Long vanished. Through the listening night, With mysterious flight, Pass those winged intimations: Like stars shot from heaven, their still voices fall to me; Far and departing, they signal and call to me, Strangely beseeching me, Chiding, yet teaching me Patience. Then at times, oh! at times, To their luminous climes I pursue as a swallow! To the river of Peace, and its solacing shades, To the haunts of my lost ones, in heavenly glades, With strong aspirations Their pinions' vibrations I follow. O heart, be thou patient! Though here I am stationed A season in durance, The chain of the world I will cheerfully wear; For, spanning my soul like a rainbow, I bear, With the yoke of my lowly Condition, a holy Assurance,— That never in vain Does the spirit maintain Her eternal allegiance: Through suffering and yearning, like Infancy learning Its lesson, we linger; then skyward returning, On plumes fully grown We depart to our own Native regions!