Why check the yearning for a friend So loved? O muse, to whom belong, By Jove's own gift, both lyre and song, Thy mournful inspiration lend. Quinctilius sleeps in endless night! When shall his peer be found on earth For truth unblemished, modest worth, And loyal faith that loves the right? The Good all mourned him; but thy moan Was saddest, Virgil! Thou in vain Dost ask him of the Gods again, Unmindful he was but a loan. Nay—could'st thou sweeter strains command Than Orpheus, whom the groves obeyed, Thou could'st not animate the shade Which Maia's son, with gloomy wand, Closing the gate of Life, hath driv'n To mingle with the spectral throng, 'Tis hard—but Suffering makes us strong To meet the unchanging will of Heav'n! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ELEGY FOR AN ENEMY by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET A NEW HYMN by KATHERINE MANSFIELD ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 31 by PHILIP SIDNEY THWARTED UTTERANCE by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE JOURNEY by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH DREAMS: ON THE HUNTING GROUND by DANIEL CHAUNCEY BREWER |