Read "Their Faces" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
O Beautiful white Angels! who control / The inner workings of each poet soul, / Thou who hast touched my mind with tender graces / Come near to me that I may see thy faces.
Me, didst thou bless before I came to earth; / Me, hast thou kissed, and dowered at my birth, / With such a wealth of sweet imaginings, / That, even in sleep, my dreaming fancy sings.
Sometimes when seeing snow-white clouds at noon, / Or watching silver shadows from the moon, / Within my soul has stirred a joy like fear, / As if some kindred spirit lingered near.
Come closer, Angels! thou whose haloed wings / Do gild for me the meanest ways and things, / With beauty borrowed from the Infinite -- / Stand forth, let me behold thee in the light.
O thought supreme! O death! O life! unknown / I shall not solve thy mystery alone. / The angels who have kissed me at my birth / Shall take again my soul when done with earth, / And as we soar through vast, star-lighted spaces, / At last, at last I shall behold their faces.