Explore "By-and-Bye" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"By-and-bye," the maiden sighed-"by-and-bye / He will claim me for his bride, / Hope is strong and time is fleet; / Youth is fair, and love is sweet, / Clouds will pass that fleck my sky, / He will come back by-and-bye-by-and-bye."
"By-and-bye," the soldier said-"by-and-bye, / After I have fought and bled, / I shall go home from the wars, / Crowned with glory, seamed with scars. / Joy will flash from some one's eye / When she greets me by-and-bye-by-and-bye."
"By-and-bye," the mother cried-"by-and-bye, / Strong and sturdy at my side, / Like a staff supporting me, / Will my bonnie baby be. / Break my rest, then, wail and cry- / Thou'lt repay me by-and-bye-by-and-bye."
Fleeting years of time have sped-hurried by- / Still the maiden is unwed: / All unknown the soldier lies, / Buried under alien skies; / And the son, with blood-shot eye, / Saw his mother starve and die. / God in Heaven! dost Thou on high, / Keep the promised "by-and-bye"-by-and-bye?