WHAT is there in the vale of life Half so delightful as a Wife, When friendship, love, and peace combine To stamp the marriage-bond divine? The stream of pure and genuine love Derives its current from above; And earth a second Eden shows, Where'er the healing water flows: But ah, if, from the dykes and drains Of sensual nature's feverish veins, Lust, like a lawless headstrong flood, Impregnated with ooze and mud, Descending fast on every side, Once mingles with the sacred tide, Farewell the soul-enlivening scene! The banks that wore a smiling green, With rank defilement overspread, Bewail their flowery beauties dead. The stream polluted, dark, and dull, Diffused into a Stygian pool, Through life's last melancholy years Is fed with ever-flowing tears: Complaints supply the zephyr's part, And sighs that heave a breaking heart. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PUTTIN' THE BABY AWAY by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR AVE ATQUE VALE; IN MEMORY OF CHARLES BAUDELAIRE by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE ODE SUNG AT THE OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION by ALFRED TENNYSON PORTRAIT BY PICHER by FRANCES BAKER AFFINITES: 1 by MATHILDE BLIND INAUGURATION SONNET: WILLIAM JEWETT TUCKER by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE |