And haply many a heart shall win
What envious earth no more may give,
And kindly dreams make real the gleams
That scarce in memory live.
XXIII.
I tried to think how life would be
Were love from this world banished,
Earth would be but a naked waste
Whence every flower had vanished.
The heart would wander through the world
Till canker care decayed it,
And gloomier than this world itself
’Ere God in light arrayed it.
So gloomy that terrestrial man
Would loath the earth he cherished,
And God himself would abdicate
A heaven where love had perished.
XXIV.
Fair was the night and transparent,
You might look into heaven’s portals,
And the scent and the song and the murmur,
Enchanted the hearts of mortals.
Alas! that thou wert not beside me
To list, love, beside me staying,
How the oak leaves whisper together,
And the wind with the woodbine is playing.
