| Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | Twilight Hours.
V. “Is It So, O Christ in Heaven?” | | By Sarah Williams (“Sadie”) (1841–1868) |
| | (From “Questionings”)
IS it so, O Christ in heaven, that the souls we loved so well | |
| Must remain in pain eternal, must abide in endless hell? | |
| And our love avail them nothing, even Thine avail no more? | |
| Is there nothing that can reach them,—nothing bridge the chasm o’er?— | |
| “I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them now.” | 5 |
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| Is it so, O Christ in heaven, that the Antichrist must reign? | |
| Still assuming shapes Protean, dying but to live again? | |
| Waging war on God Almighty, by destroying feeble man, | |
| With the heathen for a rear-guard, and the learnèd for the van?— | |
| “I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them now.” | 10 |
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| Is it so, O Christ in heaven, that the highest suffer most? | |
| That the strongest wander farthest, and more hopelessly are lost? | |
| That the mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain, | |
| And the anguish of the singer makes the sweetness of the strain?— | |
| “I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them now.” | 15 |
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| Is it so, O Christ in heaven, that whichever way we go | |
| Walls of darkness must surround us, things we would but cannot know? | |
| That the Infinite must bound us, as a temple veil unrent, | |
| While the Finite ever wearies, so that none attain content?— | |
| “I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them now.” | 20 |
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| Is it so, O Christ in heaven, that the fulness yet to come | |
| Is so glorious and so perfect, that to know would strike us dumb? | |
| That, if only for a moment, we could pierce beyond the sky | |
| With these poor dim eyes of mortals, we should just see God, and die?— | |
| “I have many things to show you, but ye cannot bear them now.” | 25 | | | |
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