Gone Before Poem by Gerald Massey

ONE of God's own Darlings was my bosom's nestling Dove,
With her looks of love and sunshine, and her voice so rich and low:
How it trembled through my life, like an Immortal's kiss of love!
How its music yearns through all my memory now!
How her beauty rainbows round me, and her sweet smile, silverly
As a song, fills all the silence of the Midnight's charmèd hours;
And I know from out her grave she'll send her love in death to me,
By the Spring in smiling utterance of Flowers.

O my Love, too good for Earth, has gone into the land of light;
It was hard, she s aid, to leave me, but the Lord had need of her;
And she walks the heavens in glory like a Star i' the crown of Night,
With the Beautiful and Blessed mingling there.—
Gone before me, to be clothed in a bridal robe of white,
Where Love's blossom comes to fruit, and all its suffering's glorified!
May my love but make me meet and worthy of her presence bright
That in heaven I may claim her as my Bride.