Home Complete - A poem by Arline Crocker

Home Complete.

There is nothing on earth so dear and sweet,
No joys that are so near complete,
That can sing for us a sweeter tune,
Than when the loved ones were all found at home.

There is nothing that can make us happy feel,
When we around the fireside kneel,
To realize that the time has not yet come
To break up the circle of the dear ones at home.

There is nothing that can give the heart more cheer,
Than with the sweet knowledge that we are all here:
None of us yet have thought to roam,
But on long winter evenings we're all found at home.

The angel of death has never yet
Thought of taking not one of our lot;
O what a sweet sweetness, what a joy untold,
That the family circle is an unbroken fold.

Think you that heaven will e'er be complete
If there is one loved one left without;
Just one is missing from out the fold^__
Will it be Heaven with joy untold?

'Tis hard to stand their separations here,
But how insignificant when compared with that sep-
aration there;
For we have a hope to be united sometime^__
But that separation is for all, all time.

O in that Heaven will not be complete,
God's plans, God's desires, will be all in defeat,
Until the last wanderer shall be gathered home-
Then it will be Heaven to every one.
'The separations forever will be over and done,
When all the loved ones will be gathered home.

^__Arline Crocker.

Poets and Poetry of Kansas
Edited by Thomas W. Herringshaw
(Chicago: American Publishers' Association. 1894)
Page 166