University of Virginia Library


209

LE TEMPS VIENDRA.

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Suggested by a Cameo, with the above motto, representing a Greek girl, with her hand clasped to her lover's bosom, while both are mutely gazing on the skies.

No troth is pledged—no vow is passed,
No words of love are spoken;
But round their hearts a chain is cast,
Which never can be broken:
Its links were there forever set,
The moment that their pulses met,
And wedded in one burning grasp,
A bond no mortal can unclasp.
For if a watch be kept above,
O'er manhood's faith and woman's trust,
If Heaven wills that human love,
Be ever traced in more than dust—
'T is thus, when like two streams that mingle,
Two souls are in one moment single;
'T is thus, when rapt like these from earth,
In Heaven their union has its birth.

210

And they may never meet again,
Or only here like strangers meet—
May mingle with the cold and vain;
Like them, too, may each other greet:
But in their hearts will live the power,
The deep remembrance of that hour,
Till time shall teach—perhaps too late,
How closely woven is their fate.