Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | Lines: When youthful faith hath fled | By John Gibson Lockhart (17941854) |
| WHEN youthful faith hath fled, | |
Of loving take thy leave; | |
Be constant to the dead | |
The dead cannot deceive. | |
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Sweet modest flowers of Spring, | 5 |
How fleet your balmy day! | |
And Mans brief life can bring | |
No secondary May: | |
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No earthly burst again | |
Of gladness out of gloom, | 10 |
Fond hope and vision vain, | |
Ungrateful to the tomb. | |
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But tis an old belief | |
That on some solemn shore | |
Beyond the sphere of grief | 15 |
Dear friends shall meet once more: | |
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Beyond the sphere of Time | |
And Sin and Fates control, | |
Serene in endless prime | |
Of body and of soul. | 20 |
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That creed I fain would keep, | |
That hope Ill not forgo | |
Eternal be the sleep | |
Unless to waken so! | | | |
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