How oft we strain our human eyes to trace
Some picture of the future's hidden face;
And yet of all who've gone the silent way
Not one has dared a single step retrace.
The Silent Way
Always before us lies the silent way
Along whose mystic sands some ill-wrought day
Your feet and mine, Sweetheart, alone must stray.
The shadowy valley has its own sad gloom;
There hangs the unknown mystery of the tomb;
Along its way no sweet-faced daisies bloom.
But Lotus trees grow by the silent way,
Teaching forgetfulness of pain to those who stray;
Lethe of Life and Life's unfinished play.
If you could walk with me, ah! your sweet eyes
Would be as sunshine in its sunless skies,
And o'er its gloom new hope, new strength would rise.
But we must tread alone this silent way,
And when you go God grant new light may play
Upon its horizon so cold, so gray.
