Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WHITHER, by ARTHUR PETERSON


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WHITHER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dear one, where art thou gone / who dwelt so long with me?
Last Line: Thou goest. It must be best.
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


Dear one, where art thou gone
Who dwelt so long with me?
I walk this earth alone.
What place doth shelter thee?
What mystic spirit land
Allotted by God's hand?

Or doth thy sweet shade move
Beside me on this wold?
Compass me round with love
As in the days of old?
Guard me from every harm
With unseen, angel's arm?

Ah, whither didst thou pass
That morning while I knelt
Beside thy bed, alas,
And kissed thy face, and felt
That, suddenly, thou wast gone,
And I was left alone?

I know not: mystery --
In birth, in life, in death --
Doth us environ. We
Know not whence comes the breath
Of being at our birth,
Nor whither, when from earth

The immortal soul recedes,
That soul unbodied goes.
We pray in funeral weeds.
But whither? No man knows.
No voice, amidst the gloom,
Comes from beyond the tomb.

I only know, dear heart,
That God, who placed us here,
Hath willed that we should part.
He gave thee to me, dear,
And now, at His behest,
Thou goest. It must be best.





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