OCR Text |
Show ONLY GOING TO THE GATE. Like a bell of blossom ringing, Clear and childish, short and sweet, Floating to the porch's shadow, With the faintest fall of feet, Comes the answer softly backward; Bidding tender watcher wait, While the baby queen outruns her, "Only going to the gate." Through the moonlight, warm and scented, Love to beauty breathes a sigh, Always to depart reluctant, Loth to speak the word "good-bye;" ? Then ??? echo answers?, Waiting love of older date, And the maiden whispers softly, "only going to the gate." Oh, these gates along our pathway, What they bar outside and in! With the vague outlook beyond them, Over waves we have not been. How they stand before, behind us! Toll-gates some, with price to pay; Spring-gates some, that shut forever; Cloud-gates some that melt away. So we pass there going upward On our journey, one by one, To the distant, shining wicket, Where each traveler goes alone. Where the friends who journey with us Strangely falter, stop and wait, Father, mother, child or lover, "Only going to the gate." |