Beyond

Beyond you high and gloomy walls

     Which seem all freedom to destroy

     Bloom rarest flowers in their joy,

Whose fragrance on the soft air falls.

Beyond you lowering clouds of gray

     Whose very might and somberness

     Appear all gladness to suppress,

Shines gold and white in bright array.

Beyond this strange and selfish life

     Suspends a sphere of harmony;

     Rich in all thought and purity,

Where ceaseth enmity and strife.

June 27, ‘93

Pub. in B. Courier,

Sept. 16, 1894