Blended Spheres

Between the lines heaven and earth
     There floats misty veil, so thin 
The riper soul at death's new birth 
     May know not when he enters in.
He finds no parting of the new 
     And earlier kindred, but, instead,
A union beautiful and true,
     The living and the immortal dead.

He sees, as in a cool gray mist, 
     The watchers by his pillow stand, 
Aur, bathed in vapory amethyst, 
     The dwellers of the Eden Land.
Warm hands touch viewless hands above,
     As o'er him tenderly they bend, 
And parting tears of earthly love 
     With smiles of heavenly greeting blend.

As one unconsciously may glide
     From waking thought to pleasant dream,
The glimmer of his eventide
     Melts softly into morning's gleam.
The human loves that held him here, 
     The heavenly loves that draw him hence, 
Bind firmly in one golden sphere
     The dual realms of soul and sense.

A moment ere the cord is snapt
     That holds the spirit to its clay,
The Passer, Into vision rapt,
     May sweep the filmy veil away 
And tell by glance, or broken speech, 
     The glories that we only guess:
So near, yet hidden from our reach 
     By blinding fear and faithlessness.

Since love is portion of the soul,
     And life is life by love alone, 
He bears to his celestial goal
     The heart-ties of this nether zone,—
Not as to something far away, 
     But near and dear, a larger growth
Of all that hallows Earth to-day, 
     And makes one heavenly sphere of both!