Epilogue

Carol, every violet

Heaven for a looking-glass!

Every little valley

Under many-clouded skies;

Every little cottage

Girt about with boundless lands.

Every little glimmering

Claims the mighty shores beyond—Shores no seamen ever hailed,

Seas no ship has ever sailed.

All the shores when day is

Fade into the setting sun,

So the story tries to

More than can be told in speech.

Beauty is a fading flower,

Truth is but a wizard's tower,

Where a solemn death-bell tolls,

And a forest round it rolls.

We have come by curious

To the light that holds the days;

We have sought in haunts of

For that all-enfolding sphere:

And lo! it was not far, but near.

We have found,

O foolish-fond,

The shore that has no shore beyond.

Deep in every heart it

With its untranscended skies;

For what heaven should bend

Hearts that own the heaven of love?

Carol,

Carol, we have

Back to heaven, back to home.(From "The Flower of Old Japan")