The Soul

Is not the body more than meat ? The soul
Is something greater than the food it needs.
Prayers, sacraments, and charitable deeds,
They realise the hours that onward roll
Their endless way " to kindle or control."
Our acts and words are but the pregnant needs
Of future being, when the flowers and weeds,
Local and temporal, in the vast whole
Shall live eternal. Nothing ever dies !
The shortest smile that flits across a face,
Which lovely grief hath made her dwelling-place
Lasts longer than the earth or visible skies !
It is an act of God, whose acts are truth,
And vernal still in everlasting youth.