Classic Poem

" Did she care as much as I did
When our paths of Fate divided?
Was the love, then, all onesided —
Did she understand or care? "
Slowly fall the moments leaden,
And the silence seems to deaden —
And a voice from over yonder answers sadly: " I've been there. "

" Have you tramped the streets of cities
Poor? And do you know what it is —
While no mortal cares or pities —
To have drifted past ambition;
To have sunk below despair?
Doomed to slave and stint and borrow;
Ever haunted in your sorrow
By the spectre of To-morrow? "
And the voice from over yonder answers sadly: " I've been there. "

" Surely in the wide Hereafter
There's a land of love and laughter?
Say: Is this life all we live for —
Say it! think it, if you dare!
Have you ever thought or wondered
Why the Man and God were sundered?
Do you think the Maker blundered? "
And the voice, in mocking accents, answered only: " I've been there. "