Must be God's warders hearken every sigh,
Draw close and lovingly around the old;
The glories on the going summer lie,
On the spent sun attend the hosts in gold.

We played at love and went our way,
Careless and free, that far-off winter day.
It seemed a brave adventure, or a dream.
How could we know that love was born that day!

How could we know that love hid in a game?
That through the lips of coquetry a flame
Would leap and burn, consuming all the dross
And welding us in Love's enduring flame?

To-day I hold thee close and search thy face
To see if I might find one mocking trace
Of that wild mood that toyed with destiny—
And in thine eyes I only see—my face!

Fond Lunatick forbeare. Why dost thou sue
For thy Affection's Pay ere it is due?
Love's Fruites are Legall use; and therfore may
Be only taken on the Marriage day.
Who for this Interest too early call,
By that Exaction loose the Principall.

Then gather not those immature delights,
Untill their riper Autumne thee invites.
He that Abortive Corne cutts off his Ground,
No Husband, but a Ravisher is found.
So those that reap their Love, before they Wed,
Do in effect but Cuckold their own Bed.

Yet other thanks I owe
To him the guardian Power who guides our way
That every sense was clear when closed the day;
Clear almost as beneath the morning's glow

The eyes that in the far-off days looked down,
Ever with love, on flower and flower,
Growing in love, ne'er failed in power?
Death, having force to slay, could not discrown.

Still were the stars discerned
As clearly as when in years long dead,
Mother, upon thy bridal night they burned:
No tiniest star could veil its golden head.

And still was music sweet.

Deep is the human heart:
When anguish comes, how true friends rally round;
If human love had power, then death discrowned
And forceless would depart.

But human love has power—to this extent,
That the mute frozen horror melts at last;
The pain no human strength can bear is past;
By whom were loving friends who saved me sent?

By whom if not by thee,
Mother, whose care still active from above
Incarnate once is unincarnate love
And perfect ever-present sympathy.

Old enmities give way
Buried in love's vast overwhelming wave,

And yet I seem to hear the dead sweet voice
Saying, “Blame not overmuch yourselves, my son!
God watched—no evil is done;
Be thou not sad—rejoice!

“Even if the door of life was left ajar
Not through that door came death alone,
Nay, Love came with him,—Love who can atone
For all mistakes and sins in every star.”

Love is a circle that doth restless move
In the same sweet eternity of love.

Straight from the loves and flowers of sweet midday
My soul has passed. No afternoon
Has intervened, my thought to attune;
With no slow steps the hours have stolen away.

Straight from the sunlit morn
To this most sombre evening-hour
I have been led by some swift Power:—
Is it love that leads, or Fate's resistless scorn?

Something it is to know that in the gloom
A love most sweet abides;
That, when I seek the tomb,
I then shall grasp at once a hand that guides:

That strong and tender aid
Waits in advance. Then, though death's surges swell,
Where thou art, mother, surely it will be well
For me to follow, unafraid.

If day by day I love the dead
With deeper passion, holier power,
May not they likewise feel from hour to hour
Not love's extinction—love's new birth instead?

If I love them the more,
May not they too—if this high gift may be—
Love on, and even purelier than before?
May not they also feel more love for me?