Classic Poem

One flower may fill another's place,
With breath as sweet, with hues as glowing;
One ripple in yon ocean-space
Be lost amid another's flowing.

One star in yon bright azure dome
May vanish from its sparkling cluster,
Unmissed, unmourned, and in its room
Some rival orb eclipse its lustre.

But who shall fill a brother's room?
Or who shall soothe the bosom's grieving?
Who heal the heart around his tomb
Too faithfully, too fondly cleaving?

Can I supply youth's memories?
Or speak the words in childhood spoken?
Can I re-knit the severed ties?
Replace, retune the chord once broken?

It is not here, it is not now,
That hearts are knit no more to sever;
Grief's wrinkles razed from cheek and brow,
And life's long blanks filled up for ever.