Classic Poem

I NEED a cleansing change within—
My life must once again begin—
New hope I need, and youth renew'd,
And more than human fortitude,—
New faith, new love, and strength to cast
Away the fetters of the past.

Ah! why did fabling Poets tell
That Lethe only flows in Hell?
As if, in truth, there was no river,
Whereby the leper may be clean,
But that which flows, and flows for ever,
And crawls along, unheard, unseen,
Whence brutish spirits, in contagious shoals,
Quaff the dull drench of apathetic souls.

Ah, no! but Lethe flows aloft
With lulling murmur, kind and soft
As voice which sinners send to heaven
When first they feel their sins forgiven:
Its every drop as bright and clear
As if indeed it were a tear,
Shed by the lovely Magdalen
For him that was despised of men.

It is the only fount of bliss
In all the human wilderness—
It is the true Bethesda—solely
Endued with healing might, and holy:—
Not once a year, but evermore—
Not one, but all men to restore.