It is not death, that sometime in a sigh
This eloquent breath shall take its speechless flight; That sometime these bright stars, that now reply In sunlight to the sun, shall set in night;
That this warm conscious flesh shall perish quite, And all life's ruddy springs forget to flow;
That thoughts shall cease, and the immortal spright Be lapp'd in alien clay and laid below;
It is not death to know this, but to know
That pious thoughts, which visit at new graves In tender pilgrimage, will cease to go
So duly and so oft,—and when grass waves Over the past-away, there may be then
No resurrection in the minds of men.
By ev'ry sweet tradition of true hearts, Graven by Time, in love with his own lore; By all old martyrdoms and antique smarts, Wherein Love died to be alive the more ; Yea, by the sad impression on the shore, Left by the drown'd Leander, to endear
That coast for ever, where the billow's roar Moaneth for pity in the Poet's ear;
By Hero's faith, and the foreboding tear That quench'd her brand's last twinkle in its fall By Sappho's leap, and the low rustling fear That sigh'd around her flight; I swear by all, The world shall find such pattern in my act, As if Love's great examples still were lack'd.
LOOK how the golden ocean shines above Its pebbly stones, and magnifies their girth ; So does the bright and blessed light of love Its own things glorify, and raise their worth. As weeds seem flowers beneath the flattering brine, And stones like gems, and gems as gems indeed, Ev'n so our tokens shine; nay, they outshine Pebbles and pearls, and gems and coral weed; For where be ocean waves but half so clear, So calmly constant, and so kindly warm, As Love's most mild and glowing atmosphere, That hath no dregs to be upturn'd by storm? Thus, sweet, thy gracious gifts are gifts of price, And more than gold to doting Avarice.
THERE is a silence where hath been no sound,
There is a silence where no sound may be,
In the cold grave-under the deep deep sea, Or in wide desert where no life is found, Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profoun No voice is hush'd-no life treads silently,
But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free, That never spoke, over the idle ground : But in green ruins, in the desolate walls Of antique palaces, where Man hath been, Though the dun fox, or wild hyena, calls, And owls, that flit continually between,
Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan,
There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone.
THE curse of Adam, the old curse of all, Though I inherit in this feverish life
Of worldly toil, vain wishes, and hard strife, And fruitless thought, in Care's eternal thrall, Yet more sweet honey than of bitter gall
I taste, through thee, my Eva, my sweet wife. Then what was Man's lost Paradise!-how rife Of bliss, since love is with him in his fall! Such as our own pure passion still might frame, Of this fair earth, and its delightful bow'rs, If no fell sorrow, like the serpent, came
To trail its venom o'er the sweetest flow'rs ;- But oh! as many and such tears are ours, As only should be shed for guilt and shame!
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