Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
The Telegrams
By Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910)B
When one shall demand it, late;
For that dark consummation
The traveller must not wait.
Men say not by what connivance
He slid from his weight of woe,
Whether sickness or weak contrivance,
But we know him glad to go.
On and on and ever on!
What next?
With his hollow eyes of prayer,
While the sexton wrenches, panting,
The stone from the dismal stair.
But call not the friends who left him
When fortune and pleasure fled:
Mortality hath not bereft him,
That they should confront him, dead.
On and on and ever on!
What next?
We are coming home to-night:
Let my chamber be still and shady
With the softened nuptial light.
We have travelled so gayly, madly,
No shadow hath crossed our way;
Yet we come back like children, gladly,
Joy-spent with our holiday.
On and on and ever on!
What next?
And search every carriage through;
Let no one escape your handing,
None shiver, or shrink from view.
Three blood-stained guests expect him;
Three murders oppress his soul;
Be strained every nerve to detect him
Who feasted, and killed, and stole.
On and on and ever on!
What next?
The great house is down at last;
The image of gold is shattered,
And never can be recast.
The bankrupts show leaden features,
And weary, distracted looks,
While harpy-eyed, wolf-souled creatures
Pry through their dishonored books.
On and on and ever on!
What next?
To look on me, ere I die:
I will whisper one curse to appall him,
Ere the black flood carry me by.
His bridal? The friends forbid it;
I have shown them his proofs of guilt;
Let him hear, with my laugh, who did it;
Then hurry, Death, as thou wilt!
On and on and ever on!
What next?
Flash forward their wants and words,
While still on Thought’s slender railway
Sit scathless the little birds:
They heed not the sentence dire
By magical hands exprest,
And only the sun’s warm fire
Stirs softly their happy breast.
On and on and ever on!
God next!