Page 116
From Poems of Felicia Hemans, 1872, page 507.
THE FAITH OF LOVE.
Thou hast watch'd beside the bed of death,
O fearless human Love!
Thy lip received the last faint breath,
Ere the spirit fled above.
Thy prayer was heard by the parting bier,
In a low and farewell tone;
Thou hast given the grave both flower and tear—
—O Love! thy task is done.
Then turn thee from each pleasant spot
Where thou were wont to rove;
For there the friend of thy soul is not,
Nor the joy of thy youth, O Love!
Thou wilt meet but mournful Memory there;
Her dreams in the grove she weaves,
With echoes filling the summer air,
With sighs the trembling leaves.
Then turn thee to the world again,
From those dim, haunted bowers,
And shut thine ear to the wild, sweet strain
That tells of vanish'd hours.
And wear not on thine aching heart
The image of the dead;
For the tie is rent that gave thee part
In the gladness its beauty shed.
And gaze on the pictured smile no more
That thus can life outlast:
All between parted souls is o'er.—
Love! Love! forget the past!
"Voice of vain boding! away, be still!
Strive not against the faith
