If in the after life nothing but ease
Shall be our lot beneath the spreading trees,
How think you Soul, with lofty aim afire,
Shall there in idleness its wish appease!
The Remnant in Gray
O sing me a song of the shadowy land
Where an army thinned by the frosts of years
Marches with trembling foot and hand
The silent road of the volunteers:
The shadowy way
With no light to stay
The soul that has never had room for fears.
But a little while in the shadowy way
And the last will make his final stand,
And the soul which courage could always stay
Will feel the touch of Charon's hand.
Then the shadowy way
With no light of day
Will see the end of this faithful band.
But a little time in the shadowy way:
Such a little while and the grave is there;
So while the few who with us stay
And walk with us, let every care
In the shadowy way
With no light to stay
Be theirs to the end of the last sweet day.
