Poetry of Kansas

Found___Not Too Late.

From yonder church a wedding
Came forth one day,
Only in this particular___
It was late in the day;
For the locks of the bride and bridegroom
Were streaked with gray.
 
Their youth lay far behind them;
Alone had tried
The up-grades of life's mountain,
This groom and bride.
They now clasp hands together
On the downhill side.
 
Broadly the stupid wondered;
Yet, still and calm,
Sweet peace held close above them
Her boughs of palm,
And touched the wounds of old battles
With healing balm.
 
A year had passed. At nightfall
I saw them stand
At the door of a vine-wreathed cottage___
Hand held in hand___
While the tides of a crimson sunset
O'erflowed the land.
 
The crimson ebbed; the shadows
Stole down the dell;
With its peaceful benediction,
The twilight fell,
And the faint, sweet tone came floating
Of a far-off bell.
 
I listened, and heard a sentence
With meaning great.
The wife was whispering softly,
"The perfect mate,
After long years of waiting,
Found___not too late."

__Ellen P. Allerton

Walls of Corn And Other Poems
Ellen P. Allerton
Pages 186-187
(Hiawatha, Kansas: The Harrington Printing Company. 1894)

 
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