Half faint with toil from morn to set of sun,
       One night I watched the shadows creep
    With stealthy footstep, when the day was done,
       Toward my encastled steep.

    The palace gleamed upon my dazzled sight,—­
       From long estrangement grown more fair: 
    I sank and dreamed my feet were mounting light
       Over each golden stair.

    Once more there came the voice of waters low
       On cooling breezes perfume-fed: 
    It seemed I followed a grand leader, slow
       Through marble galleries led.

    Then sad I wakened in the vale, but found
       The stately guide still drew me on: 
    Her name was Charity; her voice a sound
       Of pure compassion.

    She said,—­“Beside thee every day I stood
       To keep false memories aloof;
    To-night I sorrowed for thy labor rude,
       And put thee to the proof.

    “Ascend again to yon high palace-towers,
       With brothers share its plenitude,
    And gather up with all thy princely powers
       Joys to infinitude.”

    “Ay me!” I cried, “bid me not go afar,
       While yet these little children call,
    Lest life grow pallid as the morning star
       In that cold shining hall!

    “All shall be theirs:  my lot is here below
       To minister the goods I hold,
    While suffering ones shall watch the torrent flow
       In waves of amber gold.

    “There childhood shall be laid on gleaming beds,
       A saintly-eyed prophetic band,
    And tinted oriels flame above their heads
       To picture the new land.

    “And dusky men shall press the snowy lawn,
       Shall feel those tears that ease all pain,
    Then wake to greet the free earth’s noble dawn
       And turn to rest again.

    “There tired soldiers wash their bleeding feet,
       Who gave for us their ripening youth
    To earn pure freedom, dared all danger meet,
       Content to die for truth.

    “There, in the sleepless watch the organ’s tone
       Shall bear them on its swelling wing
    To dreamful space, while star-fires one by one
       In vibrant chorus sing.”

    Sudden there came a thought,—­Thou hast no home,
       No shaded haunt, or mansion wide,
    No refuge after toil in which to roam,
       Where silence may abide.

    And then I saw a palace broad as earth,
       Built beautiful of land and seas,—­
    Its eastern gate shone in the morning’s birth,
       The west o’ertopped the trees.

    Free as wild waves upon an autumn day,
       A world of brothers through its space
    Might wander up and down, and sunbeams play
       Even on Sorrow’s face.

    Here in the broad sunned silence of the noon
       Peace waiteth to salute the worn,
    And ever crowneth with her tender boon
       Those who have nobly borne.