The poetical works of John Godfrey Saxe Household Edition : with illustrations |
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“IF LOVE AND LIFE WERE ONE.” |
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 | The poetical works of John Godfrey Saxe |  |
“IF LOVE AND LIFE WERE ONE.”
Much have I mused, if love and life were one,How blest were love! how beautiful were life!
Which now, so oft, are alien, or at strife;
Though each, in bitter wise, makes secret moan
Of lamentation—knowing well its own;
Each needing each, yet evermore apart;
Here—saddest of the twain—the yearning heart,
And there the barren life. Ah! thus alone,
Existence, empty of its chief delight,
Creeps, dull and shallow, to the weary close;
And—like some plant shut up in rayless night—
Love pales and pines, that in the summer sun
Of life had flourished like the garden rose;
Would God that ever love and life were one!
| The poetical works of John Godfrey Saxe | |