Page:Landon in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book 1834.pdf/40

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"Oh weep not o’er the quiet grave,  Although the spirit lost be near; Weep not, for well those phantoms know    How vain the grief above their bier. Weep not—ah no, ’tis best to die    Ere all of bloom from life is fled; Why live, when feelings, friends, and faith    Have long been numbered with the dead?

"They know no rainbow hope that weeps   Itself away to deepest shade; Nor love, whose very happiness    Should make the trusting heart afraid. Ah, human tears are tears of fire,    That scorch and wither as they flow; Then let them fall for those who live,    And not for those who sleep below.

"Yes, weep for those, whose silver chain   Has long been loosed, and yet live on; The doomed to drink from life’s dark spring,    Whose golden bowl has long been gone. Aye, weep for those, the weary, worn,    The bound to earth by some vain tie; Some lingering love, some fond regret,    Who loathe to live, yet fear to die."