The Reliquary By Bernard and Lucy Barton. With A Prefatory Appeal for Poetry and Poets |
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| II. |
“FOR LOVE IS STRONG AS DEATH.” |
 | The Reliquary |  |
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“FOR LOVE IS STRONG AS DEATH.”
They err who deem love's brightest hour
In blooming youth is known;
Its purest, tenderest, holiest power
In later life is shown:
When passions chastened and subdued
To riper years are given;
And earth and earthly things are viewed
In light that breaks from heaven.
In blooming youth is known;
Its purest, tenderest, holiest power
In later life is shown:
When passions chastened and subdued
To riper years are given;
And earth and earthly things are viewed
In light that breaks from heaven.
It is not in the flush of youth,
Or days of cloudless mirth,
We feel the tenderness and truth
Of love's devoted worth;
Life then is like a tranquil stream
Which flows in sunshine bright,
And objects mirror'd in it seem
To share its sparkling light.
Or days of cloudless mirth,
We feel the tenderness and truth
Of love's devoted worth;
Life then is like a tranquil stream
Which flows in sunshine bright,
And objects mirror'd in it seem
To share its sparkling light.
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'Tis when the howling winds arise,
And life is like the ocean,
Whose mountain-billows brave the skies
Lash'd by the storm's commotion:
When lightning cleaves the murky cloud,
And thunder peals around us,
'Tis then we feel our spirits bowed,
By loneliness around us.
And life is like the ocean,
Whose mountain-billows brave the skies
Lash'd by the storm's commotion:
When lightning cleaves the murky cloud,
And thunder peals around us,
'Tis then we feel our spirits bowed,
By loneliness around us.
Oh then, as to the seaman's sight
The beacon's trembling ray
Surpasses far the lustre bright
Of Summer's cloudless day,
E'en such to tried and wounded hearts
In manhood's darker years,
The gentle light true love imparts
'Mid sorrows, cares and fears.
The beacon's trembling ray
Surpasses far the lustre bright
Of Summer's cloudless day,
E'en such to tried and wounded hearts
In manhood's darker years,
The gentle light true love imparts
'Mid sorrows, cares and fears.
Its beams on minds of joy bereft
Their fresh'ning brightness fling,
And show that life has something left
To which their hopes may cling;
It steals upon the sick at heart,
The desolate in soul,
To bid their doubts and fears depart,
And point a brighter goal.
Their fresh'ning brightness fling,
And show that life has something left
To which their hopes may cling;
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The desolate in soul,
To bid their doubts and fears depart,
And point a brighter goal.
If such be love's triumphant power
O'er spirits touched by time,
Oh who shall doubt its purest hour
Of happiness sublime.
In youth 'tis like the meteor's gleam
Which dazzles and sweeps by,
In after-life its splendours seem
Link'd with eternity!
O'er spirits touched by time,
Oh who shall doubt its purest hour
Of happiness sublime.
In youth 'tis like the meteor's gleam
Which dazzles and sweeps by,
In after-life its splendours seem
Link'd with eternity!
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