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the loved and lost.
Come once again, there is a shadow o'er us,
Earth seems a weary land since ye are gone,
Dim is the lengthened pathway spread before us,
And distant far the goal which ye have won:
Vainly the spring-time, in its bloom returning,
Wakes the young buds, and clothes the earth anew;
Unto our hearts, with quenchless love still burning,
What, what avails its beauty, 'reft of you!
Earth seems a weary land since ye are gone,
Dim is the lengthened pathway spread before us,
And distant far the goal which ye have won:
Vainly the spring-time, in its bloom returning,
Wakes the young buds, and clothes the earth anew;
Unto our hearts, with quenchless love still burning,
What, what avails its beauty, 'reft of you!
Thou, the dear friend of girlhood, memory traces
Full many an hour of gladness linked with thee,
And in thy children's fair and gentle faces,
Some loved resemblance of thyself may see.
Thou, the kind guardian of my childhood's hours,
My guide in youth, thine absence I deplore;
See the dark cloud that on her pathway lowers,
Come to thy child, and be her shield once more.
Full many an hour of gladness linked with thee,
And in thy children's fair and gentle faces,
Some loved resemblance of thyself may see.
Thou, the kind guardian of my childhood's hours,
My guide in youth, thine absence I deplore;
See the dark cloud that on her pathway lowers,
Come to thy child, and be her shield once more.
And thou, the best and dearest, words can never
Speak the keen anguish of my stricken breast;
"Twas but our summer day—how soon to sever
The sacred bond which made our life so blest.
Speak the keen anguish of my stricken breast;
"Twas but our summer day—how soon to sever
The sacred bond which made our life so blest.
