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LOVE (2), by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He stood beside a cottage lone
Last Line: But never came to shore!
Subject(s): Love


HE stood beside a cottage lone,
And listen'd to a lute,
One summer eve, when the breeze was gone,
And the nightingale was mute.
The moon was watching on the hill,
The stream was staid, and the maples still,
To hear a lover's suit,
That -- half a vow, and half a prayer --
Spoke less of hope than of despair;
And rose into the calm, soft air,
As sweet and low
As he had heard -- O, wo! O, wo! --
The flutes of angels, long ago!
"By every hope that earthward clings,
By faith that mounts on angel-wings.
By dreams that make night-shadows bright,
And truths that turn our day to night,
By childhood's smile, and manhood's tear,
By pleasure's day, and sorrow's year,
By all the strains that fancy sings,
And pangs that time so surely brings, --
For joy or grief, for hope or fear,
For all hereafter as for here,
In peace or strife, in storm or shine,
My soul is wedded unto thine!"

And for its soft and sole reply,
A murmur, and a sweet, low sigh,
But not a spoken word;
And yet they made the waters start
Into his eyes who heard,
For they told of a most loving heart,
In a voice like that of a bird; --
Of a heart that loved, though it loved in vain;
A grieving, and yet not a pain, --
A love that took an early root,
And had an early doom,
Like trees that never grow to fruit,
And early shed their bloom, --
Of vanish'd hopes and happy smiles,
All lost for evermore;
Like ships, that sail'd for sunny isles,
But never came to shore!





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