Sorrow's Love

Our love has been no summer flower,
For joy's bright temples braided,
Drooping when tempests darkly lower,
By grief's bleak winter faded: —

Not ours the vows of such as plight
Their troth in sunny weather,
While leaves are green, and skies are bright
To tread life's path together.

But we have lov'd as those who tread
The thorny path of sorrow;
With clouds above, and cause to dread
Yet deeper gloom to-morrow.

That thorny path, those cloudy skies
Have drawn our spirits nearer;
And render'd us, by tenderest ties,
Each to the other dearer.

Love, born in hours of joy and mirth,
With mirth and joy may perish;
That to which darker days gave birth
Still more and more we cherish.

It looks beyond the clouds of time,
Through death's dim, shadowy portal;
Made by adversity sublime,
By faith and hope immortal.