Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DAYS THAT ARE NO MORE, by GEORGE DONALD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DAYS THAT ARE NO MORE, by                    
First Line: Through the dim past in fancy oft I stray
Last Line: Beyond the realms of death!
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


THROUGH the dim past in fancy oft I stray,
Seeking amid its shadows for the lost;
For vanish'd joys too early snatch'd away --
All my heart cherish'd most;

For friends departed -- those whose presence cheer'd,
Whose love lit up life's dark and weary round --
All the sweet sympathies that life endear'd,
And made earth hallow'd ground.

Oh, loved and lost! why was your stay so brief?
Why did you leave me through long years to mourn?
Is there no power can mitigate my grief,
Or bid the dead return?

Give, give me back the friends of other years,
Life's halcyon hours and pure delights restore --
Sepulchral voices mock my blinding tears,
And answer "Nevermore!"

Oh, nevermore life's vanish'd joys shall wake
From the dead past to dissipate my gloom,
Nor voice of love and friendship ever break
The silence of the tomb!

Ah, spake he well, that minstrel of old time --
"Of all we suffer here, the deepest woe
Is the remembrance of past joys sublime
We nevermore shall know."

Yet not for ever: while we trembling grope
Amid life's passing shadows, cold and grim,
There beams afar, to cheer with faith and hope,
A star not faint or dim.

O joy, to know not ever thus our doom,
That we shall find, when ends this fleeting breath,
Our joys and friendships in perennial bloom
Beyond the realms of Death!





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