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First Line: When youthful faith hath fled
Last Line: Unless to waken so!
Variant Title(s): Beyond
Subject(s): Mortality


WHEN youthful faith hath fled,
Of loving take thy leave;
Be constant to the dead, --
The dead cannot deceive.

Sweet, modest flowers of spring,
How fleet your balmy day!
And man's brief year can bring
No secondary May, --

No earthly burst again
Of gladness out of gloom:
Fond hope and vision wane,
Ungrateful to the tomb.

But 'tis an old belief
That on some solemn shore,
Beyond the sphere of grief,
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.

That creed I fain would keep;
That hope I'll not forgo:
Eternal be the sleep,
Unless to waken so!





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