YOUTH'S IMMORTALITY

What, when hearts have met, shall sever

Heart from heart, though heaven fall?

They alone are dead for ever

Who have never lived at all.

Roses that have bloomed to sweetness

Never can untimely fade,

Blessed by death in their completeness

And on beauty's bosom laid,

Garnered in the breast eternal

Where all noble joys are one,

Sweet Elysium, fair and vernal,

Where they mount who face the sun.

Happy he whom men call lonely,

Whose companion is the truth,

And whose heart is ravished only

By the world's immortal youth.

Happy he whose single treasure

Is the infinite unfurled,

And whose voice has caught the measure

Of the music of the world.

When Death gathers up our ashes

And our sorry shades depart,

Lo, Life's flame, rekindled, flashes

From another mortal heart,

And Death turns about, derided

By the Life he would deride.

Vainly space and time divided

What eternity allied.

One great hope guides all our seeing,

One pure heaven lends us light.

Love is still the crown of being,

Faith the better part of sight.

The same wisdom's ancient pages

Stir again the generous soul

To the mighty task of ages

Crawling still to reason's goal.

The prophetic Muse of Story

Sings her ancient legend o'er,

And the sea, still young and hoary,

Chants along the beaten shore.

Spring yet yields her flowery treasures

To the guiltless hands of boys,

Chastening their noisy pleasures

To the depth of human joys.

One eternal passion drives us,

Zealots of the stars above,

And our better part survives us,

Living in the things we love.