University of Virginia Library

THE DEATH OF HOPE.

Affections ever beautiful and young
Keep still their strongholds in my heart though strung
No more upon a deep harmonious Hope—
With every fear and doubt right strong to cope—
Like rich pearls on a string of silken twine,
That glistening through lends these a softer shine,
And gives them order, unity, and strength—
Alas! Hope's silken twine is loosed at length!
I love—I still love on—but well I know
My love beginneth and must end in woe!
No Hope can ever warm this heart again,
But 'tis resigned to suffering and to pain;
And haply in this harsh, harsh world, where grief
A long dark season hath—but joy is brief,
Such resignation in its tranquil mood,
Unshaken in its firmness, unsubdued,
Is more than very happiness—that lies
So open to all life's inclemencies—
So fragile and so weakly in its frame—
Breathed on by breath of change, 'tis but a name!
More, more than happiness, since formed to brunt
The war of storms—the darkness' cloudy front,
The change—the fret of circumstance—the bane—
Probation's fang—and the keen file of pain.
Be mine then—firm-fixed resignation still—
That counter-balanceth the opposing ill!
And mine those pure affections deep and true,
That seem for ever beautiful and new—
That have so much of hidden inborn power,
They live without Hope's aid, their lovely hour.
Themselves so like to Happiness and Hope,
They cannot darkly fail, nor faintly droop!
Within themselves seems shadowed forth so fair,
(Lightly as rests the rainbow on the air!
The stars' reflection on the waters' breast,
The dews that on the glowing flower-cups rest)—
All promise—all felicity—howe'er
By fate they may be doomed to grief and care
While still themselves unto themselves must be
More than all Hope and all Felicity!