Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, VERSES TO THE MEMORY OF SARAH CANDLER, by BERNARD BARTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

VERSES TO THE MEMORY OF SARAH CANDLER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O doubt not thy memory liveth
Last Line: Everlastingly echoes in heaven!
Alternate Author Name(s): Quaker Poet
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


O DOUBT not thy memory liveth
In the hearts of survivors on earth!
And soothing the pleasure it giveth
To mourners who muse on thy worth.

But, though we can never forget thee,
And though we believe thou art blest,
We cannot but deeply regret thee,
And long shall thy loss be confest.

For thine was a mind richly gifted
With talents not frequent in youth;
Yet by vanity never uplifted
Above usefulness, meekness, and truth.

We had hopes it was pleasure to nourish,
(Then how shall our sorrow be mute?)
That those bright buds of genius would flourish,
And burst into blossoms and fruit.

But our hopes and our prospects are shaded,
For the plant which inspir'd them hath shed
Its foliage, all green and unfaded,
Ere the beauty of spring-time hath fled.

Like foam on the crest of the billow,
Which sparkles, and sinks from the sight;
Like leaf of the wind-shaken willow,
Though transiently, beauteously bright;—

Like dew-drops, exhal'd as they glisten;
Like perfume, which dies soon as shed;
Like melody, hush'd while we listen;—
Is memory's dream of the dead.

But if such be the objects resembling
The glimpses we saw of thy soul;
How much more enduring the emblem
Its hopes and its prospects unrol!

That bird, which by bards is recorded,
As deathless, and all but divine,
Is now the fit emblem afforded
Of spirits immortal as thine.

Redeem'd by the God who first made thee,
Unto whom be the glory alone;
With the tree of Life only to shade thee,
From the brightness encircling his throne:

Henceforth thou art rank'd with the daughters
To whom the "new song" hath been given;
Whose voice, like the voice of vast waters,
Everlastingly echoes in heaven!





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