Yet the love I gave him was not like that I give to-day to my other boys, Who have grown beside me, and turned to me In all their griefs and in all their joys. Do you think he knows it? I wonder much If the dead are passionless, cold and dumb; If into the calm of the deathless years No thrill of a human love may come! Perhaps sometimes from the upper air He has seen me walk with his brothers three; Or felt in the tender twilight hour The breath of the kisses they gave to me! Over his birthright, lost so soon, Perhaps he has sighed as the swift years flew; O child of my heart! you shall find somewhere "BUT a week is so long!" he said, With a toss of his curly head. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven! Seven whole days! Why, in six you know (You said it yourself,―you told me so) The great God up in heaven The love that on earth you never Made all the earth and the seas and knew! THOU KNOWEST. THOU knowest, O my Father! Why should I Weary high heaven with restless prayers and tears! Thou knowest all! My heart's unuttered cry Hath soared beyond the stars and reached Thine ears. Thou knowest,-ah, Thou knowest! O, loving God, to tell Thee o'er and o'er, And with persistent iteration plead As one who crieth at some closed door? The trees and the birds and the but skies, |