Explore "Three Souls" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
THREE Souls there were that reached the Heavenly Gate, / And gained permission of the Guard to wait. / Barred from the bliss of Paradise by sin, / They did not ask or hope to enter in. / ‘We loved one woman (thus their story ran); / We lost her, for she chose another man. / So great our love, it brought us to this door; / We only ask to see her face once more. / Then will we go to realms where we belong, / And pay our penalty for doing wrong.'
‘And wert thou friends on earth? ' (The Guard spake thus.) / ‘Nay, we were foes; but Death made friends of us. / The dominating thought within each Soul / Brought us together, comrades, to this goal, / To see her face, and in its radiance bask / For one great moment-that is all we ask. / And, having seen her, we must journey back / The path we came-a hard and dangerous track. ' / ‘Wait, then,' the Angel said, ‘beside me here, / But do not strive within God's Gate to peer / Nor converse hold with Spirits clothed in light / Who pass this way; thou hast not earned the right.'