University of Virginia Library

V

For the vows divinely plighted
By these lovers, now united,
Set we all our soul-bells swinging
With a sweet and rhythmic ringing
In their high-built towers eternal,
That from dust of things diurnal
We may waft them with our chiming,
Tuning it, the while, and timing
To the deep and soundless chorus
Of the souls that loved before us,
Who have gained that golden morrow
On the sunward side of sorrow,
All their travail past redeeming
With the substance of earth's seeming!
From those high and holy places
May the Virtues, may the Graces,
To the loom of life descending
Weave them days of happy blending—
Warp of toil and weft of leisure
Patterned into perfect pleasure—
With all flowers of fine affection
Wrought for lasting recollection!
Roamers of Faith's magic mountain
May they find the enchanted fountain
That with bubbling bliss up-bursteth
For the lips of him that thirsteth,
Filling what can ne'er be sated,
By its own sweet want created!
So, beyond all risk of ranging,
Love, the chaste, the never-changing,
Whatso' mortal hap betide them,
In his secret haunt shall hide them,
Keep them whole and single-hearted,
Ne'er to be estranged or parted,
By the troth no time can sever
Welded and made one for ever!