From the elixir of the purest truth
Turn they toward an image built of naught
Drinking through life, in childhood, age and youth
The bitterness of some deceiver's plot.
Turn they toward an image built of naught
Drinking through life, in childhood, age and youth
The bitterness of some deceiver's plot.
Thanks be to you, ye great souls of the past,
For the life-lessons ye have lived to teach;
Thanks be to you that on Time's current cast
Fresh leaves of truth float ever in our reach,
And have they gone, the realms of imagery,
Dissolve their magic barriers to the real,
Roll in, ye waves of life's prosaic sea
But when will Fancy's queen their ranks reveal?
For the life-lessons ye have lived to teach;
Thanks be to you that on Time's current cast
Fresh leaves of truth float ever in our reach,
And have they gone, the realms of imagery,
Dissolve their magic barriers to the real,
Roll in, ye waves of life's prosaic sea
But when will Fancy's queen their ranks reveal?
O they will come again when vain and weak
Seemeth the strife of man to live for men,
Unto our lives their deathless lives will speak
Down through the noise of centuries that have been!
O they will come, yea ever and anon
With that majestic presence high and calm;
Until with them our teachers, we sit down
To the glad marriage-supper of the Lamb!
Seemeth the strife of man to live for men,
Unto our lives their deathless lives will speak
Down through the noise of centuries that have been!
O they will come, yea ever and anon
With that majestic presence high and calm;
Until with them our teachers, we sit down
To the glad marriage-supper of the Lamb!
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