Auf Wiedersehen Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Until we meet again! That is the meaning
Of the familiar words, that men repeat
       &nbsp At parting in the street.
Ah yes, till then! but when death intervening
Rends us asunder, with what ceaseless pain
       &nbsp We wait for the Again!

The friends who leave us do not feel the sorrow
Of parting, as we feel it, who must stay
       &nbsp Lamenting day by day,
And knowing, when we wake upon the morrow,
We shall not find in its accustomed place
       &nbsp The one beloved face.

It were a double grief, if the departed,
Being released from earth, should still retain
       &nbsp A sense of earthly pain;
It were a double grief, if the true-hearted,
Who loved us here, should on the farther shore
       &nbsp Remember us no more.

Believing, in the midst of our afflictions,
That death is a beginning, not an end,
       &nbsp We cry to them, and send
Farewells, that better might be called predictions,
Being fore-shadowings of the future, thrown
       &nbsp Into the vast Unknown.