Poems (Barker)/To My Husband on our 12th Wedding Anniversary
To My Husband.
ON OUR 12th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY.What sound is this, upon the glad air stealing? So soft, so sweet the music that it tells:O, voice of love, so fraught with tender feeling, It is the echo of our wedding bells.
Twelve years ago, they rang their chime so holy Two hearts made one, and husband dear to-night,We hear their echo, softly, sweetly, slowly, And feel the joy within our souls more bright.
Twelve years dear one, and He who fills the measure, Has thought it best to mix the joy with pain;But if we wait in patience his good pleasure. The promise is "to make the loss, our gain."
Twelve years our hearts and hands have been united Our thoughts, our aims, our purposes been one,And ne're on earth were vows more holy, plighted No cloud has ever dimmed love's radient sun.
The path was rough sometimes, with hands so tender We've stooped to clear it, for each others feetLove's fairy wand has often served to render The thorny way, a path of flowers sweet.
O, merry bells ring out, ring out in gladness Fill every heart with love and peace to-night,Drive from us every thought of gloom and sadness, Long may thine echo make the whole world bright.