Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/139

Rh But, friend, the grass will grow again, the flowers

Again will bloom, the summer birds will sing,

And the all-healing sun will shine once more."

"Blind prophecy," she answered in her woe.

Yet still, as time wore on, the prophet's words

Came true,—but not all true. (So shall it be

With all who here may suffer mortal loss.)

Ere long the grass, the flowers, the birds, the sun

Once more made bright the bleak and desolate earth;

They came once more, those joys of other days;

She felt them, moved among them, and was glad.

Glad—glad! O mocking word! They came once more,

But not the same to her. Familiar they

As a remembered dream, and beautiful—

But changed, all changed, the whole world changed for ever.

PART III

CONGRESS: 1878