Explore "Optimism" by Voltairine De Cleyre on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
There's a love supreme in the great hereafter, / The buds of earth are blooms in heaven; / The smiles of the world are ripples of laughter / When back to its Aidenn the soul is given: / And the tears of the world, though long in flowing, / Water the fields of the bye-and-bye; / They fall as dews on the sweet grass growing / When the fountains of sorrow and grief run dry.
Though clouds hang over the furrows now sowing / There's a harvest sun-wreath in the After-sky!
No love is wasted, no heart beats vainly, / There's a vast perfection beyond the grave; / Up the bays of heaven the stars shine plainly, / The stars lying dim on the brow of the wave.
And the lights of our loves, though they flicker and wane, they / Shall shine all undimmed in the ether-nave.
For the altars of God are lit with souls / Fanned to flaming with love where the star-wind rolls.
St. Johns, Michigan, 1889.