Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A DIEU! AND AU REVOIR!, by WILLIAM ARTHUR DUNKERLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A DIEU! AND AU REVOIR!, by                    
First Line: As you love me, let there be
Last Line: "his father!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Oxenham, John
Subject(s): Future Life; Religion; Retribution; Eternity; After Life; Theology


As you love me, let there be
No mourning when I go, --
No tearful eyes,
No hopeless sighs,
No woe, -- nor even sadness!
Indeed I would not have you sad,
For I myself shall be full glad,
With the high triumphant gladness
Of a soul made free
Of God's sweet liberty.

-- No windows darkened;
For my own
Will be flung wide, as ne'er before,
To catch the radiant inpour
Of Love that shall in full atone
For all the ills that I have done;
And the good things left undone;
-- No voices hushed;
My own, full-flushed
With an immortal hope, will rise
In ecstasies of new-born bliss
And joyful melodies.

Rather, of your sweet courtesy,
Rejoice with me
At my soul's loosing from captivity.
Wish me "Bon voyage!"
As you do a friend
Whose joyous visit finds its happy end.
And bid me both "A Dieu!"
And "Au revoir!"
Since, though I come no more,
I shall be waiting there to greet you,
At His Door.

And, as the feet of the bearers tread
The ways I trod,
Think not of me as dead,
But rather --
"Happy, thrice happy, he whose course is sped!
He has gone home -- to God,
His Father!"





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