Page:The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14.djvu/125

1864.]

No mystic charm, no mortal art

Can bid our loved companions stay;

The bands that clasp them to our heart

Snap in death's frost and fall apart;

Like shadows fading with the day,

They pass away.

The young are stricken in their pride,

The old, long tottering, faint and fall;

Master and scholar, side by side,

Through the dark portals silent glide,

That open in life's mouldering wall

And close on all.

Our friend's, our teacher's task was done,

When mercy called him from on high;

A little cloud had dimmed the sun,

The saddening hours had just begun,

And darker days were drawing nigh:

'Twas time to die.

A whiter soul, a fairer mind,

A life with purer course and aim,

A gentler eye, a voice more kind,

We may not look on earth to find.

The love that lingers o'er his name

Is more than fame.

These blood-red summers ripen fast;

The sons are older than the sires;

Ere yet the tree to earth is cast,

The sapling falls before the blast;

Life's ashes keep their covered fires,—

Its flame expires.

Struck by the noiseless, viewless foe,

Whose deadlier breath than shot or shell

Has laid the best and bravest low,

His boy, all bright in morning's glow,

That high-souled youth he loved so well,

Untimely fell.

Yet still he wore his placid smile,

And, trustful in the cheering creed

That strives all sorrow to beguile,

Walked calmly on his way awhile:

Ah, breast that leans on breaking reed

Must ever bleed!