Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume II. Love. 1904. | | | | VIII. Wedded Love | | “Not ours the vows” | | Bernard Barton (1784–1849) |
| | | NOT ours the vows of such as plight | |
| Their troth in sunny weather, | |
| While leaves are green and skies are bright, | |
| To walk on flowers together. | |
| |
| But we have loved as those who tread | 5 |
| The thorny path of sorrow, | |
| With clouds above, and cause to dread | |
| Yet deeper gloom to-morrow. | |
| |
| That thorny path, those stormy skies, | |
| Have drawn our spirits nearer; | 10 |
| And rendered us, by sorrow’s ties, | |
| Each to the other dearer. | |
| |
| Love, born in hours of joy and mirth, | |
| With mirth and joy may perish; | |
| That to which darker hours gave birth | 15 |
| Still more and more we cherish. | |
| |
| It looks beyond the clouds of time, | |
| And through death’s shadowy portal; | |
| Made by adversity sublime, | |
| By faith and hope immortal. | 20 | | | |
|
|
