"I KNOW not how to comfort thee; Yet dare not say, Weep on! I know how little life is worth When love is gone. "The mighty with the weak contend; The many with the few: The hard and heavy hearts oppress The tender and the true. "Had he been capable of love, His love had clung to thee; He was too weak a thing to bear That noble energy. "Lift, lift your forehead from my lap, And lay it on my breast: I too have wept; but you I deemed Still safe within your nest." Her words were vain, but not her tears; The Mourner raised her eyes, Subdued by the atoning power Of pitying sympathies: Subdued at first, ere long consoled, At last she ceased to moan; For those who feel another's pain Will soon forget their own. O ye whom broken vows bereave, Your vows to heaven restore: O ye for blighted love who grieve, Love deeper and love more! The arrow cannot wound the air Nor thunder rend the sea, Nor injury long afflict the heart That rests, O Love, in thee! The winds may blow, the waves may swell; But soon those tumults cease, And the pure element subsides Into its native peace. |