Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


FRIENDS by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD

First Line: OUR FRIENDS IN THE COURTS OF PEACE WE KEEP
Last Line: THROUGH DEATH IS OURS FOREVER.
Subject(s): DEATH; FRIENDSHIP; LIFE; LOVE; PEACE; DEAD, THE;

Our friends in the Courts of Peace we keep,
The friends we lose are the living;
The loved ones, wrapped in dreamless sleep,
Are ours beyond misgiving.

A hasty word, a broken vow,
A rival's base endeavor, --
Such things can never part us now,
We are joined by death forever.

So I mourn no more beside the graves,
Whose soft turf rounds above them;
It is life that wrecks, it is death that saves
And lets us always love them.

Why wish them back in a world of strife,
Where feuds old friendships sever?
The love that might have failed in life,
Through death is ours forever.



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