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THE CITY OF THE LIVING.
No mourning for the lost, no anguished crying
Made any face less fair.
Made any face less fair.
Without the city's walls death reigned as ever,
And graves rose side by side;
Within, the dwellers laughed at his endeavor,
And never any died.
And graves rose side by side;
Within, the dwellers laughed at his endeavor,
And never any died.
O happiest of all earth's favored places!
O bliss, to dwell therein!—
To live in the sweet light of loving faces,
And fear no grave between!
O bliss, to dwell therein!—
To live in the sweet light of loving faces,
And fear no grave between!
To feel no death-damp, gathering cold and colder,
Disputing life's warm truth,—
To live on, never lonelier or older,
Radiant in deathless youth!
Disputing life's warm truth,—
To live on, never lonelier or older,
Radiant in deathless youth!
And hurrying from the world's remotest quarters
A tide of pilgrims flowed
Across broad plains and over mighty waters,
To find that blest abode,
A tide of pilgrims flowed
Across broad plains and over mighty waters,
To find that blest abode,
Where never death should come between, and sever
Them from their loved apart,—
Them from their loved apart,—
