HE HAS SOLVED it -- Life's wonderful problem, The deepest, the strongest, the last; And into the school of the angels With the answer forever has passed. How strange that, in spite of our questions, He maketh no answer, nor tells Why so soon were earth's honoring laurels Displaced by God's own immortelles. How strange he should sleep so profoundly, So young, so unworn by the strife! While beside him, brimful of Hope's nectar, Untouched stands the goblet of life. Men slumber like that when the evening Of a long, weary day droppeth down; But he wrought so well that the morning Brought for him the rest and the crown. 'Tis idle to talk of the future And the rare "might have been," 'mid our tears; God knew all about it, yet took him Away from the oncoming years. God knew all about it -- how noble, How gentle he was, and how brave, How brilliant his possible future -- Yet put him to sleep in the grave. God knows all about those who loved him, How bitter the trial must be; And right through it all God is loving, And knows so much better than we. So, right in the darkness, be trustful; One day you shall sing, "It is well." God took from his young brow earth's laurels And crowned him with death's immortelles. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VARIATIONS: 15 by CONRAD AIKEN THE CITY REVISITED by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET CONTRA MORTEM: THE NOTHING II by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE IMPOSSIBLE INDISPENSIBILITY OF THE ARS POETICA by HAYDEN CARRUTH DOMESDAY BOOK: HENRY BAKER, AT NEW YORK by EDGAR LEE MASTERS DOMESDAY BOOK: MRS. MURRAY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |