_By Fanny Hallock Carpenter_
A beautiful soul has journeyed
Out from the Now into Then.
Her voice echoes back to us, waiting,
The sound of the great Amen.
Her life was a song so winsome
It sung itself night and day
Into the hearts of the people
Who met her along the way.
Her life was a flower so fragrant
That every one passing her, knew
By the perfume from it exhaling,
The love out of which it grew.
Her life was a book so vivid
That all, though running, could read
The story of earnest endeavor
Written for woman's need.
Her life was a light whose radiance
Brightened all woman-kind,
As sunshine wakens the flowers,
Or genius illumines the mind.
Her life was a poem so tender
It thrilled with its cadence sweet
Many a life prosaic,
Which caught up the rhythmic beat.
Her life was a bell whose ringing
Gave no uncertain sound,
Its chiming rang out to the nations
And girdled the world around.
Her life was a deed so holy,
So noble, so brave, so true,
That it set all womanhood noting
The good one woman could do.
Her life was a brook, that swelling
Grew to a river wide,
That freshened the souls of the many
Touched by its flowing tide.
The song has trilled into silence,
The flower is faded and gone,
The book's strong story is ended,
The light is lost in the dawn.
The poem's sweet rhythm is ended,
The chiming has ceased to be,
The deed is fully accomplished,
The river has joined the sea.
She dropped the pebble whose ripples
To the shores of all time shall extend,
She has spoken the word into ether
Whose sound-waves never shall end.
She has started a light on its journey
Out into limitless space,
She has written a thought for women
Eternity cannot erase.
A wonderful soul has journeyed
Out from the Now into Then,
Her voice echoes back to us, waiting,
The sound of the great Amen.