Vision by Edwina Stanton Babcock — Read

I saw the Search-light, like a seraph, fly / Over the water's moved mysterious face, / Bridging the harbor, pushing darkness by, / Pouring its flood upon a far-off place.

I thought -- no gleam can travel where they wait, / No human light throws silver on their shore; / Their crystal Sea's unmargined like the great / Love which they know, and rest in evermore.

I thought -- no light can show the flowers they bear, / Their heaven-looks, the tender things they say; / No light reveals the raiment that they wear, / Nor all the bliss of their unwearied Day.

And yet, who knows? So long have yearning men / Turned to those borders searching, wistful, gaze; / What stainless light may flash upon our ken, / What glorious faces smile at our amaze?

Dim reaches wait, untrodden shores exist, / The sea of Death completes the solemn scheme; / But comes the light to sweep away the mist, / And comes the heart to rightly read the Dream.

I see the Search-light in the years to come, / Moving anew on borders strange and far; / I see new coast lines set with lights of home, / Men's faces turned toward a near-burning Star.