SONG.

Written for a Swiss Air.

1.

Weep for the lovely, that are fled,

With years their smiles made bright;

The lovely that are vanished,

Like unreturning light;

Like Stars that set and leave no ray,

Like Summer’s bloom forgot,

From Earth their glory died away,

But Earth remembers not.

2.

How still they slumber ’neath the turf,

The faded spoil of grief;

The sore-tossed pearls of Ocean’s surf,

The forest’s withered leaf!

Remembered—as a fancy fled,

Or as a vanished sound,

Where once their light a lustre shed

On meaner things around!

3.

Weep for the lovely, sent to bless

The world’s unlovely clime,

And oft, in all their loveliness

To fade before their time;

Made often in their guileless years

Some soulless mortal’s prey,

To feel the waste of secret tears,

And all the heart’s decay!