Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By BarrettEastman

1605 Joy Enough

INTO the caverns of the sea

Shall all at last descend,

Who now press forward gallantly

Unrecking of the end.

And no man knoweth what is there,

Nor when his time shall come

To yield his soul and take his share

With all those gone and dumb.

It may be we shall find our kin

Waiting to grasp our hands,

And lead us glorified within,

Over the shining sands;

It may be we with them shall lie,

While heaven and earth sun,

Swaying silent with sightless eye

There in the sluggish tide.

It matters nothing if to-day,

Beneath the splendid sun,

We hold to the appointed way,

Doing what must be done.

Reward? What would you? Have not we

The waves beneath us bent?

The winds about us blowing free?

Above—the firmament?