One By One Love's Links Are Broken

One By One Love's Links Are Broken

"One by one the objects of our affection depart from us. ----- Thou glorious Spirit-land! O, that I could behold thee as thou art, - the region of life, and light, and love, and the dwelling-place of those beloved ones, whose being has flowed onward like a silver-clear stream into the solemn sounding main, into the ocean of Eternity!"
HYPERION.

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One by one love's links are broken,

One by one our friends depart,

Voices that have kindly spoken,

Heart which throbbed to kindred heart.

Gentle tones with ours that blended

At the holy hour of prayer,

Lips from which Te Deum ascended,

We ask for these, and find them - where?

Some are resting in the ocean,

Hidden 'mid its secrets deep,

Heedless of its wild commotion,

Sleeping there a dreamless sleep.

Some have wandered o'er the billow,

Prayers nor tears their lives could save,

Deep their rest beneath the willow,

In a far-off churchyard grave.

And some are near us calmly lying,

Our love-words cannot break their sleep,

No answer comes but wild winds sighing

Through the grass o'er which we weep.

List we for the heart-warm greeting

Loved and prized in days gone by?

Look we for fond glances meeting

Ours from out the soul-lit eye?

Ask we for the joyous beaming

Of the smiles that radiant shone

Round us in our youthful dreaming?

Ask for these? - where are they? - gone!

Like the fresh and dewy sweetness

Of the summer's balmy flowers,

Such the fragrance, such the fleetness,

Of those blessed dreams of ours.

Ah, not here, not ere our dwelling

In this changing world of time,

Thanks to GOD! all change is telling

Of a holier, happier clime.

Thanks to GOD! this parting, paining,

Weans the heart from earthly ties,

Life's night of sorrow darkly waning,

Will break in morn beyond the skies!

Weep not over hopes departed,

Seek not here the scattered band,

Soul of mine, rouse up, look forward

To the glorious Spirit-land!

J.C.

New Series 2:26, p. 104

1841.08.28

From the Churchman