THE FAITH OF LOVE by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS

THOU hast watched beside the bed of death,
O fearless human Love!
Thy lip received the last, faint breath,
Ere the spirit fled above.

Thy prayer was heard by the parting bier,
In a low and farewell tone;
Thou hast given the grave both flower and tear --
-- O Love! thy task is done.

Then turn thee from each pleasant spot
Where thou wert wont to rove;
For there the friend of thy soul is not,
Nor the joy of thy youth, O Love!

Thou wilt meet but mournful Memory there;
Her dreams in the grove she weaves,
With echoes filling the summer air,
With sighs the trembling leaves.

Then turn thee to the world again,
From those dim, haunted bowers,
And shut thine ear to the wild, sweet strain
That tells of vanished hours.

And wear not on thine aching heart
The image of the dead;
For the tie is rent that gave thee part
In the gladness its beauty shed.

And gaze on the pictured smile no more
That thus can life outlast:
All between parted souls is o'er. --
Love! Love! forget the past!

"Voice of vain boding! away, be still!
Strive not against the faith
That yet my bosom with light can fill,
Unquenched and undimmed by death.

"From the pictured smile I will not turn,
Though sadly now it shine;
Nor quit the shades that in whispers mourn
For the step once linked with mine;

"Nor shut mine ear to the song of old,
Though its notes the pang renew.
-- Such memories deep in my heart I hold,
To keep it pure and true.

"By the holy instinct of my heart,
By the hope that bears me on,
I have still my own undying part
In the deep affection gone.

"By the presence that about me seems
Through night and day to dwell,
Voice of vain bodings and fearful dreams!
-- I have breathed no @3last@1 farewell!"

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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