Classic Poem

O friend beloved! one glance of yours
Through all the changeful years endures;
Entangled in the sun's bright rays,
A subtle, shadowy thing, it stays
For me to look upon and keep,
While you are in the grave, asleep.

Dear pleasant eyes, ye do not mark
The dawnings, nor the evenings dark;
The mountain-tops are white with snow;
By country roads the wild-flowers grow;
On new-made graves the sunbeams fall;
Ye look straight on beyond them all.

Sweet silent lips, once red as wine,
What smiles and words of love were thine!
Ye filled the air with laugh and song;
Ye paled and trembled at the wrong;
Whence came to you this grand control
O'er all the passions of the soul?

My precious friend, from year to year,
A shade among the shadows here
You dwell apart, nor grieve, nor blame
That now I seldom name your name,
For time makes haste—the hour is late;
We both remember and we wait.

O friend beloved! one glance of yours
Through all the changeful years endures;
Entangled in the sun's bright rays,
A subtle, shadowy thing, it stays
For me to look upon and keep,
While you are in the grave, asleep.

Dear pleasant eyes, ye do not mark
The dawnings, nor the evenings dark;
The mountain-tops are white with snow;
By country roads the wild-flowers grow;
On new-made graves the sunbeams fall;
Ye look straight on beyond them all.

Sweet silent lips, once red as wine,
What smiles and words of love were thine!
Ye filled the air with laugh and song;
Ye paled and trembled at the wrong;
Whence came to you this grand control
O'er all the passions of the soul?

My precious friend, from year to year,
A shade among the shadows here
You dwell apart, nor grieve, nor blame
That now I seldom name your name,
For time makes haste—the hour is late;
We both remember and we wait.