The lighthouse shines across the sea; The homing fieldfares sing for glee: "Behold the shore!" Alas for shattered wing and breast! The lighthouse breakers make their nest, And hedges bloom for them no more -- No more. In their old church the lovers stand. His wedding ring is on her hand, All partings o'er. Alas for mother still and cold, The babe her dead young arms enfold! Her lover will know love no more -- No more. What fate is this for birds and men? -- The blue empyrean theirs -- and then -- This fast-closed door. One answers from his bended knee: "Another morrow comes," saith he, "A day that brings the night no more -- No more." Ah, happy one! Yet happier he Who knows he knows not what will be; Who has no lore To read the runes of life and death, But lives his best while he has breath, And leaves with God the evermore -- The evermore. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DEATH OF SLAVERY by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE MAN HE KILLED by THOMAS HARDY CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE WORKHOUSE by GEORGE ROBERT SIMS GRACE AND STRENGTH by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH OF BENEVOLENCE: AN EPISTLE TO EUMENES by JOHN ARMSTRONG WINGS AT DAWN by JOSEPH AUSLANDER |