AND the Angel said “Nay!
“But reckon the years of your life once again,
“Not a thousand, one day,
“But one day, as a thousand years!” Then
How clear it all seemed!
I had lived, and I knew it not—Lived!
And I thought I but dreamed,
So brief a time-space I had lived.
* * * * * *
And the Angel said “Read!”
And the story of life op’ed before me;
Wakened Soul! Small the need,
Swift mem’ry the page will restore thee;
“But read! Now thou darest,
“There is nothing that thou would’st amend,
“For that hour was life’s rarest,
“When a Soul did’st thine own comprehend.”