Page 36 Transcribed: Poem (Beyond)
Beyond
Never a word is said, but it trembles in the air,
And the truant voice has sped, to vibrate everywhere;
And perhaps far off in eternal years
The echo may ring upon our ears.
Never are kind acts done to wipe the weeping eyes,
But like flashes of the sun, they signal to the skies;
And up above the angels read
How we have helped the sorer need.
Never a day is given, but it tones the after years,
And it carries up to heaven its sunshine or its tears;
While the to-morrows stand and wait,
The silent mutes by the outer gate.
There is no end to the sky, and the stars are everywhere,
And time is eternity, and the here is over there;
For the common deeds of the common day
Are ringing bells in the far-away.
Posts
There is very little about this poem out there. I know it is not originally by the author of this diary. It is by a man named Henry Burton, who I can't find out anything about. In fact the only place I have found info on this poem is here -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.archive.org/details/ateveningtimeoth00jaywrich
if you go to that site you will find a copy of a book called "At the evening-time, and other poems" (1892). It is a anthology of english poems and you can download it or read a flip book which is a scanned version of the original. The poem "Beyond" by Henry Burton appears on page 93.
I found this poem by Henry Bunton in GOOD WORDS
ReplyDeletefor 1881 on page 197
I sit in the fading light
And watch the shadows fall
My day has turned to night
And darkness covers all
The sunlight's gone far over the sea
But the morn will bring it back to me.
My summer birds are gone
I cannot hear them sing
I missed them one by one
Till all had taken wing
My summer birds flew over the sea
But the spring will call them back to me.
My summer flowers are dead
the jasmine and the rose
The autumn leaves are shed
And buried in the snows
But the flowers are blooming over the sea
And the spring will give them back to me
My darling child has passed
up to the promised land
The anchor she has cast
Away on the golden strand
But I shall follow over the sea
And Heaven will give her back to me
There is a gravestone in the Kanowna cemetery, an old mining ghost-town east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
ReplyDeleteIt is dated 1896 and is inscribed with the last verse of Beyond by Henry Burton.
Your blog is the only reference I have been able to find, thank-you for sharing.
Possibly
ReplyDeleteHenry Burton Bradley
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bradley-henry-burton-3040
ReplyDelete