Sweet friend, when you and I are gone Beyond earth's weary labor, When small shall be our need of grace From comrade or from neighbor, Then hands that would not lift a stone, Where stones were thick to cumber Our steep hill path, will scatter flowers Above our pillowed slumber. Sweet friend, perchance both thou and I, Ere love is past forgiving, Should take the earnest lesson home -- Be patient with the living. Today's repressed rebuke may save Our blinding tears tomorrow. Then patience, e'en when keenest edge May whet a nameless sorrow. 'Tis easy to be gentle when Death's silence shames our clamor, And easy to discern the best Through memory's mystic glamour; But wise it were for thee and me, Ere love is past forgiving, To take the earnest lesson home -- Be patient with the living. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A PAUSE by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI YOU MAY REMEMBER by LULU PIPER AIKEN CYNTHIA ON HORSEBACK by PHILIP AYRES A THOUGHT ON DEATH by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD ANYWHERE OUT OF THE WORLD by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE TO DUST RETURNING by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH THE UNSPOKEN by ANNE MILLAY BREMER |