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TWINS IN DEATH.
  
  
  
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TWINS IN DEATH.

Shall the true faith, soaring high,
Dreaming still about the sky,
Weep the loved ones who have sought
What hath ever been our thought?—
Better, with a word of cheer,
Send our thoughts to follow, where
Thought 's no more a thing of care!—
Go, ye young twin-hearted,
Whom not even death has parted,

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So well ye clung together;—
Ye are free the long campaign,
Marches in the cold and rain,
Hard fight and bitter weather.
Ye shall know no more of trembling,
Weep no more at man's dissembling,
Nor at griefs more dread,
In the cruel, sad defeat
Of the hope, of all most sweet
On which our hearts have fed;—
Fed—fed! as in the solitude
The Hebrew did upon celestial food!
Sweet your future slumbers, where
The young flowers, though soft and fair,
Hide no reptile, nurse no care,—
Where no shaft your hearts may sever!
Sweetest fate was yours,—to mingle
Souls that would unite forever,
Dreading ever to be single!—
God has bless'd your deep repose;
And the union so divine,
Hath a perfume like the rose,
That upon some mountain grows,
Where the clouds ascend not,
Which the tempests rend not,
Where stars of night and day, still twinn'd, together shine.
Life can wing no after blow,
Ye are safe from mortal woe,
Ye have wings to fly the cloud,
Souls to fling aside the shroud;
Dreading never more the morrow,

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With its brow of frown and sorrow;
Free from cruel time's oppressing,
Death himself but brings ye blessing.
Death who soothes even when he blights—
Where is he stern-hearted?—
Not when thus his hand unites
What never life had parted!
Ye have ceased your ailing,
There should be no wailing!