You are here: Home > Browse books > Lyrics of Lowly Life, 1896 > After While.
Previous Poem Previous       Next Next Poem

Poems in Lyrics of Lowly Life, 1896

Ere Sleep Comes Down To Soothe The Weary Eyes.

The Poet and His Song

Retort

Accountability

Frederick Douglass

Life

The Lesson

The Rising of the Storm

Sunset

The Old Apple-Tree

A Prayer

Passon and Love

The Seedling

Promise and Fulfilment

Song

Ode to Ethiopia

The Corn-Stalk Fiddle

The Master-Player

The Mystery

Not They Who Soar

Whittier

Two Songs

A Banjo Song

Longing

The Path

The Lawyers' Ways

Ode for Memorial Day

Premonition

Retrospection

Unexpressed

Song of Summer

Spring Song

To Louise

The Rivals

The Lover and the Moon

Conscience and Remorse

Ione

Religion

Deacon Jones' Grievance

Alice

After the Quarrel

Beyond the Years

After a Visit

Curtain

The Spellin'-Bee

Keep A-Pluggin' Away

Night of Love

Columbian Ode

A Border Ballad

An Easy-Goin' Feller

A Negro Love Song

The Dilettante: A Modern Type

By the Stream

The Colored Soldier

Nature and Art

After While

The Ol' Tunes

Melancholia

The Wooing

Merry Autumn

When De Co'n Pone's Hot

Ballad

The Change Has Come

Comparison

A Corn-Song

Discovered

Disappointed

Invitation to Love

He Had His Dream

Good-Night

A Coquette Conquered

Nora: A Serenade

October

A Summer's Night

Ships that Pass in the Night

The Delinquent

Dawn

A Drowsy Day

Dirge

Hymn

Preparation

The Deserted Plantation

The Secret

The Wind and the Sea

Riding to Town

We Wear the Mask

The Meadow Lark

One Life

Changing Time

Dead

A Confidence

Phyllis

Right's Security

If

The Song

Signs of the Time

Why Fades a Dream?

The Sparrow

Speakin' O' Christmas

Lonesome

Growing' Gray

To the Memory of Mary Young

When Malindy Sings

The Party

After While.

I THINK that though the clouds be dark,
That though the waves dash o'er the bark,
Yet after while the light will come,
And in calm waters safe at home
The bark will anchor.
Weep not, my sad-eyed, gray-robed maid,
Because your fairest blossoms fade,
That sorrow still o'erruns your cup,
And even though you root them up,
The weeds grow ranker.

For after while your tears shall cease,
And sorrow shall give way to peace;
The flowers shall bloom, the weeds shall die,
And in that faith seen, by and by
Thy woes shall perish.
Smile at old Fortune's adverse tide,
Smile when the scoffers sneer and chide.
Oh, not for you the gems that pale,
And not for you the flowers that fail;
Let this thought cherish:

That after while the clouds will part,
And then with joy the waiting heart
Shall feel the light come stealing in,
That drives away the cloud of sin
And breaks its power.
And you shall burst your chrysalis,
And wing away to realms of bliss,
Untrammelled, pure, divinely free,
Above all earth's anxiety
From that same hour.

Previous Poem Previous                Next Next Poem

Copyright Information © 2005 
For more information contact: Archives
Last updated Wed. Aug-20-08