MIGHTY ones, Love and Death! Ye are the strong in this world of ours; Ye meet at the banquets, ye dwell midst the flowers; -- Which hath the conqueror's wreath? @3Thou@1 art the victor, Love! @3Thou@1 art the fearless, the crowned, the free, The strength of the battle is given to thee -- The spirit from above! Thou hast looked on Death, and smiled! Thou hast borne up the reed-like and fragile form Through the waves of the fight, through the rush of the storm, On field, and flood, and wild! No! -- @3Thou@1 art the victor, Death! Thou comest, and where is that which spoke, From the depths of the eye, when the spirt woke? -- Gone with the fleeting breath! Thou comest -- and what is left Of all that loved us, to say if aught @3Yet loves@1 -- yet answers the burning thought Of the spirit lone and reft? Silence is where thou art! Silently there must kindred meet, No smile to cheer, and no voice to greet, No bounding of heart to heart! Boast not thy victory, Death! It is but as the cloud's o'er the sunbeam's power, It is but as the winter's o'er leaf and flower, That slumber the snow beneath. It is but as a tyrant's reign O'er the voice and the lip which he bids be still; But the fiery thought and the lofty will Are not for him to chain! They shall soar his might above! And thus with the root whence affection springs, Though buried, it is not of mortal things -- @3Thou@1 art the victor, Love! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MISS KILMANSEGG AND HER PRECIOUS LEG: HER BIRTH by THOMAS HOOD TACT by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON IDENTITY by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 54. AL-KAWI by EDWIN ARNOLD BALLADE OF THE FOREST HAUNTERS by THEODORE FAULLAIN DE BANVILLE |