Read "The Soul's Farewell to the Body" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
So we must part forever. And although / I long have beat my wings and cried to go / Free from your narrow limits and control, / Forth into space, the true home of the soul;
Yet now, yet now that hour is drawing near, / I paused reluctant, finding you so dear. / All joys await me in the realm of God; / Must you, my comrade, moulder in the sod?
I was your captive, yet you were my slave; / Your prisoner, yet obedience you gave / To all my earnest wishes and commands. / Now to the worm I leave these willing hands
That toiled for me, or held the book I read. / These feet that trod where 'er I bade them tread, / These arms that clasped my dear ones, and the breast / On which one loved and loving heart found rest.
These lips thro' which my prayers to God have risen, / These eyes that were the windows of my prison. / From these, all these, Death's angel bids me sever, / Dear Comrade Body, fare you well forever.
I go to my inheritance; and go / With joy that only the freed soul can know; / Yet, in my spirit journeyings I trust / I may sometimes pause near your sacred dust.