The Poetry Corner

The Voice From Over Yonder

By Henry Lawson

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: Ive 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: Ive been there. Surely in the wide Hereafter Theres 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: Ive been there.