Classic Poem

What Alchemy's empiric art
Found not with all its boasted powers
Life's true elixir — is a heart
Blended by mutual love with our's.

Unbounded wealth — perpetual youth —
Eternal life — what are they all
Compared with fond unwavering Truth
Heaven's only relic since the fall.

Who that has loved and been beloved
Would change for all the world can give
The one bright spell his heart has proved
Without which 'tis not life to live.

Birth — Riches — Talent — Glory — Friends,
All man can ask or fate supply
Are nothing 'till affection lends
It's own delicious Alchemy.

Whence has all Joy and Beauty birth?
Who lights the sun the stars the wave?
Whose magic gladdens Heaven and Earth?
Whose eye first pierced beyond the grave?

Love! Love, Almighty love! reply
All those who worship and rejoice —
But absence-tortured votaries sigh
And bitter Memory finds no voice!