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Hazel bloom

Chapter 80: The Great Hereafter.

By Julia Carter Aldrich

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Poetry Religion/Spirituality

About This Book

A compact collection of lyrical poems and short narratives that meditate on motherhood, faith, and the consolations found in nature. Many pieces recall childhood and domestic scenes, confront suffering and loss, and draw on Christian imagery to offer comfort and moral reflection. The verse moves between contemplative monologue, descriptive nature writing, and occasional narrative sketches, balancing personal feeling with devotional and ethical concerns. Throughout, simple pleasures—flowers, seasons, quiet homelife—are set against questions of destiny, grief, and spiritual hope.

The Great Hereafter.

Will the wrongs of life be righted,

Fruited there the hopes here blighted,

In the great hereafter?

Will the darkened lives be lighted

And dissevered souls united

In the great hereafter?

Will this wearing, wild commotion

Sink to rest and sweet emotion

Calm all strife hereafter?

Will love’s slighted, fond devotion

Reach beyond life’s tossing ocean

To the great hereafter?

Will the vows here lightly broken

With repentant tears be spoken

In the great hereafter?

The wounded one accept the token

Of the heart’s remorse unspoken

In the great hereafter?

Gladly from its idols turning

Will the soul forget its yearning

In the great hereafter?

Thro’ a quickened sense discerning

That the labors we’ve been spurning

Keep love’s holy incense burning

In the great hereafter?

Shall we find that hopes deceiving

Helped us on to grand achieving

In the great hereafter?

And be blest with glad receiving

What is now but faith, believing

In the great hereafter?

Will the soul that’s drunk the vial

Of a bitter self-denial

Feel the loss hereafter?

Or, thro’ sacrifice and trial,

Will it triumph o’er Belial,

In the great hereafter?

Will the bands by dogmas riven

Scathed and scarred by anger levin,

Make a peaceful, joyous Heaven

In the great hereafter?

For the good for which they’ve striven

Will their errors be forgiven

In the great hereafter?

There, with pomp, his work resuming

Will the bigot, still presuming,

God’s prerogative assuming

In the great hereafter,

Sit as judge, his brother dooming,

And with creed-lit torch reluming

Fires of torture “unconsuming,”

Through the great hereafter?

Will the Wrong, the Right assailing,

Wring from suffering helpless wailing

In the great hereafter?—

Conquered Good, with banners trailing,

Seeking streams for Hope’s regaling,

Be mirage-lured, till faint and failing,

Faith becomes a phantom, sailing

Through the great hereafter?

Or, shall our spirit eyes beholding

God’s mysterious plans unfolding

In the great hereafter,

See His strength the Right upholding

And his love the weak enfolding

In the great hereafter?

Struggling here with opposition,

Gives, perchance, the strong volition

Some may need for angel mission,

In the great hereafter;

And the ills of life’s condition,

To the tried may bring fruition

Of a joyous, sweet elysian

In the great hereafter.

What has seemed Fate’s unfair dealing,

May unveil, a joy revealing

In the great hereafter:

Though denying our appealing,

Made in agony of feeling,

God may still, with love’s own healing,

Higher destiny, be sealing

For the Great Hereafter.