University of Virginia Library

LOVE'S JOYS AND SORROWS.

Oh! Love hath joys and Love hath sorrows too,
Sorrows for ever keen—joys ever new!
They who from doubt, and strife, and change would fly,
Must fly from Love—and Fear, his pale Ally;
Hoard up their Heart's deep precious waters all,
Nor let them flow to waste, at Love's false call,
Then shall the halcyon form of perfect Peace
Brood o'er them—and their calm shall never cease,
And o'er them too shall float the unfleeing Dove
Of the Everlasting—Heavenly—Changeless Love,
All fraught with breathless tenderness and Truth,
And calm shall be their age, and calm their youth
Who thus with wisest care beneath the sun,
The fearful sway of earthly passion shun!—
Aye, though they love not that which is of Earth,
Though they love not the things of mortal birth,
The mighty fountains of the Heart still flow,
Even while they move through this dim world below.
They love—they feel—they consecrate the heart
To things from All Life's vanities apart—
And while 'tis saved from deep and dreadful woe,
The fountains of the Immortal Heart still flow!
(To quicken into glorious Seas of Light,
Unshadowed by one cloud of threatening night,
When Life's dark hour at length hath fleeted past,
And all its cares are to oblivion cast,)
Those fountains may be checked, but never dried,
And they shall swell to an eternal tide—
When shines that light of heaven which ne'er grows less,
Over their whole existence—strong to bless—
Love's wonderous powers can die not in the Soul,
'Tis Heaven hath kindled them throughout the whole.
With all our boundless Being—Love is blent,
And we are chained by bonds none ever rent.
And Earthly Love—e'en Earthly Love can raise
The spirit high o'er Life's distracted maze—
And to the Heavenly Love, the pure indeed,
May brightly and with fine gradations lead;
And when the glorious twain together twine,
They both appear e'en equally divine.
Yea, and in sooth, where suffering and where woe,
From Love may darkly spring and sadly flow,
Even there doth something precious and august
Lift the rapt soul above its coil of dust;
Then say not Love, even Earthly Love, is vain,
Though it may lead to wretchedness and pain,
To dark regret, and many a gloomy ill.
Oh! Love's the Soul of Heaven's creation still!
Its very tears are precious as the stars,
Which shine above to smile down Earth's vile jars;
These sparkle like etherial dazzling gems,
Fitted for bright and heavenly diadems!
Oh! say not Love is vain—it is not vain,
Death shall give up to it his power and reign;
The World, the Sun—Time, Fate, shall it survive,
And everlastingly rejoicing live!
Though it may cause at times the deadliest grief,
Yet of Earth's best of blessings 'tis the chief!
Though it may make the chastened bosom smart,
And deeply wound the lorn unanswered heart,
And check the spirit with a mortal chill,
Yet Love's the soul of the Creation still!
'Tis still a glorious and immortal Sun,
Although at times, in sooth, a clouded one!