No More

No more! A harp-string’s deep and breaking tone,
A last, low, summer breeze, a far-off swell,
A dying echo of rich music gone,
Breathe through those words--those murmurs of farewell--
No more!

To dwell in peace, with home-affections bound,
To know the sweetness of a mother’s voice,
To feel the spirit of her love around,
And in the blessing of her eye rejoice--
No more!

A dirge-like sound! To greet the early friend
Unto the hearth, his place of many days;
In the glad song with kindred lips to blend,
Or join the household laughter by the blaze--
No more!

Through woods that shadow’d our first years to rove
With all our native music in the air;
To watch the sunset with the eyes we love,
And turn, and read our own heart’s answer there--
No more!

Words of despair!--yet earth’s, all earth’s the woe
Their passion breathes--the desolately deep!
That sound in heaven--oh! image then the flow
Of gladness in its tones--to part, to weep--
No more!

To watch, in dying hope, affection’s wane,
To see the beautiful from life depart,
To wear impatiently a secret chain,
To waste the untold riches of the heart--
No more!

Through long, long years to seek, to strive, to yearn
For human love--and never quench that thirst;
To pour the soul out, winning no return,
O’er fragile idols, by delusion nursed--
No more!

On things that fail us, reed by reed, to lean,
To mourn the changed, the far away, the dead;
To send our troubled spirits through the unseen,
Intensely questioning for treasures fled--
No more!

Words of triumphant music! Bear we on
The weight of life, the chain, the ungenial air;
Their deathless meaning, when our tasks are done,
To learn in joy,--to struggle, to despair--
No more!

Where shall I find, in all this fleeting earth,
This world of changes and farewells, a friend
That will not fail me in his love and worth,
Tender and firm, and faithful to the end?

Far hath my spirit sought a place of rest--
Long on vain idols its devotion shed;
Some have forsaken, whom I loved the best,
And some deceived, and some are with the dead.

But thou, my Saviour! thou, my hope and trust,
Faithful art thou when friends and joys depart;
Teach me to lift these yearnings from the dust,
And fix on thee, th’ Unchanging One, my heart!