The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 4.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

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[301] And holier signs, unmarked before,
     Of Love to seek and Power to save,—
The righting of the wronged and poor,
     The man evolving from the slave;

And life, no longer chance or fate,
     Safe in the gracious Fatherhood.
I fold o'er-wearied hands and wait,
     In full assurance of the good.

And well the waiting time must be,
     Though brief or long its granted days,
If Faith and Hope and Charity
     Sit by my evening hearth-fire's blaze.

And with them, friends whom Heaven has spared,
     Whose love my heart has comforted,
And, sharing all my joys, has shared
     My tender memories of the dead,—

Dear souls who left us lonely here,
     Bound on their last, long voyage, to whom
We, day by day, are drawing near,
     Where every bark has sailing room

I know the solemn monotone
     Of waters calling unto me
I know from whence the airs have blown
     That whisper of the Eternal Sea.

As low my fires of drift-wood burn,
     I hear that sea's deep sounds increase,
And, fair in sunset light, discern
     Its mirage-lifted Isles of Peace.