I am alone in my banishment;
I cry to thee unhearken'd:
Like Adam from his Eden sent,
When he look'd where the gold gates darken'd.
Myself I discern in him return
And plead with a vain endeavour:
In vain he raves where the Angel waves
The flaming sword “Forever!”

And I must sow a homeless lea
With the sweat of toil & sorrow:
Nor in pale hope of joy for thee
One consolation borrow.
The Paradise in thy sweet eyes
Still faints with its anguish'd ‘never,’
To him who craves where the Angel waves
The flaming sword “Forever.”

It cuts my heart, it blinds my sight,
It drives me forward friendless;
It turns the fruit of years to blight
And misery stretches, endless.
Yet have we trust beyond our dust
To meet where others sever:
For sweet over graves the Angel waves
The flaming sword “Forever!”