Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Miscellaneous Poems. VII. The Better LandFelicia Dorothea Hemans (17931835)
“I
Thou call’st its children a happy band
Mother! oh, where is that radiant shore?
Shall we not seek it, and weep no more?
Is it where the flower of the orange blows,
And the fire-flies glance thro’ the myrtle boughs?”
“—Not there, not there, my child!”
And the date grows ripe under sunny skies?
Or midst the green islands of glittering seas,
Where fragrant forests perfume the breeze,
And strange bright birds on their starry wings
Bear the rich hues of all glorious things?”
“—Not there, not there, my child!”
Where the rivers wander o’er sands of gold,
Where the burning rays of the ruby shine,
And the diamond lights up the secret mine,
And the pearl gleams forth from the coral strand?
Is it there, sweet mother! that better land?”
“—Not there, not there, my child!”
Ear hath not heard its deep songs of joy!
Dreams cannot picture a world so fair—
Sorrow and death may not enter there:
Time doth not breathe on its fadeless bloom
For beyond the clouds and beyond the tomb,
—It is there, it is there, my child!”