 | The high-top sweeting And Other Poems |  |
139
VACANT PLACES.
How much soever in this life's mutations
We seek our shattered idols to replace,
Not one, in all the myriads of the nations,
Can ever fill another's vacant place.
We seek our shattered idols to replace,
Not one, in all the myriads of the nations,
Can ever fill another's vacant place.
Each has his own, the smallest and most humble,
As well as he revered the wide world through;
At every death some loves and hopes must crumble,
Which never strive to build themselves anew.
As well as he revered the wide world through;
At every death some loves and hopes must crumble,
Which never strive to build themselves anew.
If the fair race of violets should perish
Before another spring-time has its birth,
Could all the costly blooms which florists cherish
Bring back its April beauty to the earth?
Before another spring-time has its birth,
Could all the costly blooms which florists cherish
Bring back its April beauty to the earth?
Not the most gorgeous flower that uncloses
Could give the olden grace to vale and plain;
Not even Persia's gardens full of roses
Could ever make our world so fair again.
Could give the olden grace to vale and plain;
Not even Persia's gardens full of roses
Could ever make our world so fair again.
140
And so with souls we love; they pass and leave us.
Time teaches patience at a bitter cost;
Yet all the new loves which the years may give us
Fill not the heart-place aching for the lost.
Time teaches patience at a bitter cost;
Yet all the new loves which the years may give us
Fill not the heart-place aching for the lost.
New friends may come to us with spirits rarer,
And kindle once again the tear-drowned flame;
But yet we sigh, “This love is stronger, fairer,
And better, it may be; but not the same!”
And kindle once again the tear-drowned flame;
But yet we sigh, “This love is stronger, fairer,
And better, it may be; but not the same!”
| The high-top sweeting And Other Poems | |