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Home  »  The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century  »  Frederick William Orde Ward (1843–1922)

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By The Prisoner of Love (1904). IX. Who goes Home?

Frederick William Orde Ward (1843–1922)

  • “Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”
  • Heb. xiii. 14.

  • TRAVELLER, traveller, whither bound

    On the journey thou dost tread?

    Every clod is heavenly ground,

    Or a graveyard of the dead;

    As thou makest it by deed

    Charnal roof or church’s dome,

    Bleaching bones or blessèd seed—

    Who goes Home?

    Traveller, traveller, each new stage

    Takes thee nearer to the close

    Of thy mortal pilgrimage—

    Dust of doom or Sharon’s Rose;

    Each new step is something lost,

    Something gained, whate’er may come—

    Soon thy Jordan must be crost—

    Who goes Home?

    Traveller, traveller, at thy side

    Walketh Enemy or Friend,

    But alone the crucified

    Find the way is also end;

    Hours and moments lightly flit,

    God will shut thy earthly time

    When the final page is writ—

    Who goes Home?