NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS

Part 4: The Correspondence and Papers of John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854), Editor of the Quarterly Review, from the National Library of Scotland

When Youthful Faith Has Fled

When youthful faith has fled,

     Of loving take thy leave;

Be constant to the dead -

     The dead cannot deceive.

Sweet modest flowers of spring,   

     How fleet your balmy day!

And man's brief year can bring

     No secondary May.

No earthly burst again

     Of gladness out of gloom;

Fond hope and vision vain,

     Ungrateful to the tomb!

But 'tis an old belief,

     That on some solemn shore,

Beyond the sphere of grief,

     Dear friends will meet once more.

Beyond the sphere of time,

     And sin, and fate's control,

Serene in changeless prime

     Of body and of soul.

That creed I fain would keep,

     That hope I'll not forego;

Eternal be the sleep,

     Unless to waken so.

<back