University of Virginia Library

TO MY HEART

Oh, heart of mine! why lookest thou beyond?
In what delusion fond,
What castle-builder's unavailing dream,
Ling'rest thou still? The universal scheme,—
The throbbing-space allotted to thy sires,
Is it too narrow for thy vain desires? . . .
See, Youth is over-past; the tripping feet
Tread now demurely; by the garden-seat
New lovers linger, under orchard-boughs;—
The same old vows,
Spoken by other lips, in other ears,
The maiden's blush, the youth's ingenuous fears,
Revive anew with each succeeding spring,
But, unto thee, no fresh awakening
Comes with the seasons! Nay, thou knowest well
The ultimate decay of husk and shell
Whence the full summer-ripen'd grain is shed
Must be thy doom, yet still unquieted,
Thou, unregenerate, misguided heart,
Wouldst have thy part
With summer-time, and love, and wak'ning song,
And all that doth to joyous youth belong,
Regardless of the dark'ning of thy day!
Not in the fray,
In martial combat, or in lover's strife
Hast thou thy life,
But thou canst take thy place, in modest wise,
By Life's obscurer thoroughfare, which lies
Beyond the gardens of the golden fruit.
There, with those mute
And pulseless things, that, without pow'r of speech,
Can warn and teach,
Have thou thy part, and, even as a book,
Wherein, if young impassion'd lovers look,
They straightway learn new wisdom; or a tune
Play'd in sweet bowers garlanded by June,
Which lives again, long after summer's close,
At sight of the still'd lute wherefrom it rose,
So, in thine isolation, mayst thou yet
Earn grateful recollection and regret,
With tribute of dried flow'r, or faded bow;
Since hearts that know,
Hearts that have drain'd the bitter and the sweet,
Have empire over those that break and beat,
So mayst thou sit upon the Judgment-Seat
And have dominion! . . . . .