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The Reliquary

By Bernard and Lucy Barton. With A Prefatory Appeal for Poetry and Poets

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WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


97

WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM.

Here varied names together blend,
Stranger link'd side by side with friend;
Some have fulfill'd their well-spent day,
While others tread life's thorny way.
Here are—who o'er the bounding wave
Have press'd their brother man to save,
Led by that love so richly given,
To point the way to peace and heaven!
Here are—whose gentle course is shewn
Only by blessings round them strewn;
Who fill—with patient energies,
In faith, and hope, life's charities!
Combined they form a fragrant wreath,
Whose sweets are undestroy'd by death,
Then, lady, why should wish of thine
Ask name so little worth as mine?

98

How strange the thought—a day draws nigh
Involved in present mystery,
When names which here have met before,
Shall meet again—one moment more!
When amid throngs of wakening dead,
The Book of Life shall be outspread!
Oh grateful bliss, beyond compare,
To find our names recorded there.