| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Lines: ‘When youthful faith hath fled’ | | By John Gibson Lockhart (1794–1854) |
| | | WHEN youthful faith hath fled, | |
| Of loving take thy leave; | |
| Be constant to the dead— | |
| The dead cannot deceive. | |
| |
| Sweet modest flowers of Spring, | 5 |
| How fleet your balmy day! | |
| And Man’s 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. | |
| |
| But ’tis an old belief | |
| That on some solemn shore | |
| Beyond the sphere of grief | 15 |
| Dear friends shall meet once more: | |
| |
| Beyond the sphere of Time | |
| And Sin and Fate’s control, | |
| Serene in endless prime | |
| Of body and of soul. | 20 |
| |
| That creed I fain would keep, | |
| That hope I’ll not forgo— | |
| Eternal be the sleep | |
| Unless to waken so! | | | | |
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