University of Virginia Library


200

ARE WE FORGOTTEN?

Are we forgotten, when our spirits pass
The silent doors of all-absorbing death?
Yea, do we mingle with the flowers and grass,
And draw no more sweet loving human breath?
Lovers have trodden love's mystic path before us,
And other fair-souled lovers will succeed—
Will mark the same blue skies that once shone o'er us,
Or haply with the same deep sorrows bleed.
Oh, is there any resting place, a haven
For love's wings sent forth like the pilot raven
To pierce the shadows, pioneer the tomb?
Hath patient endless labour any worth,
Abiding value, surety, upon earth,
Or doth all loving effort end in gloom?