IF I DIE FIRST.

If I die first, dear love,
My mournful soul, made free,
Shall sit at heaven’s high portal,
To wait and watch for thee, love,
And through the deep, dark space
To peer, with human longings,
For thy radiant face.

‘Mid all the stars of heaven,
One only shall I see,
The Earth, star of my passion,
Half Heaven for holding thee –
All Heaven for holding thee, love,
And brightest of the spheres,
By thy smile illumined,
Or hallow’d by thy tears.

If I die first, dear love, -
I feel that this shall be,
For Heaven will not be Heaven
Until it’s shared with thee, -
I’ll linger at the gate,
Or be they guardian angel,
To teach thee how to wait.

And when thine hour shall come,
And through the yielding night
I see thy happy spirit
Upsoaring, robed in light,
Mine shall go forth to meet thee,
And, through th’ eternal door,
Pass in with thee, rejoicing,
Made one for evermore.