Explore "The Answer" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Up to the gates of gleaming Pearl, / There came the spirit of a girl, / And to the white-robed Guard she said: / ‘Dear Angel, am I truly dead? / Just yonder, lying on my bed, / I heard them say it; and they wept. / And after that, methinks I slept. / Then when I woke, I saw your face, / And suddenly was in this place. / It seems a pleasant place to be, / Yet earth was fair enough to me. / What is there here, to do, or see? / Will I see God, dear Angel, say? / And is He very far away?'
The Angel said, ‘You are in truth / What men call dead. That word to youth / Is full of terror; but it means / Only a change of tasks, and scenes. / You have been brought to us because / Of certain ancient karmic laws / Set into motion eons gone. / By us you will be guided on / From plane to plane, and sphere to sphere, / Until your tasks are finished here. / Then back to earth, the home of man, / To work again another span.'