University of Virginia Library

Fixed Love.

You know that I love you, yet bid me adieu,
Can happiness live when absent from you?
Will sleep on my eyelids e'er sweetly alight
When greeted no more by a tender good night?

95

Oh, never, for deep is the record enshrined,
Thy look and thy voice will survive in my mind;
Though age may the treasure of memory remove
Unshaken shall flourish the thought that I love.
Through life's winding valley, in anguish, in rest,
Exalted in joy, or by sorrow depressed;
Just place in the mirror that lies on my heart
Thine image shall never one moment depart.
When time, life, and all that we mortals hold dear,
Like visions, like dreams, shall at last disappear,
Though raised among seraphs to realms above,
Unshaken shall flourish the thought that I love.