Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1834/The Zenana - Oh weep not o’er the quiet grave

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

SONG.

"Oh weep not o’er the quiet grave,
    Although the spirit lost be near;
Weep not, for well those phantoms know
    How vain the grief above their bier.
Weep not—ah no, ’tis best to die
    Ere all of bloom from life is fled;
Why live, when feelings, friends, and faith
    Have long been numbered with the dead?

"They know no rainbow hope that weeps
    Itself away to deepest shade;
Nor love, whose very happiness
    Should make the trusting heart afraid.
Ah, human tears are tears of fire,
    That scorch and wither as they flow;
Then let them fall for those who live,
    And not for those who sleep below.

"Yes, weep for those, whose silver chain
    Has long been loosed, and yet live on;
The doomed to drink from life’s dark spring,
    Whose golden bowl has long been gone.
Aye, weep for those, the weary, worn,
    The bound to earth by some vain tie;
Some lingering love, some fond regret,
    Who loathe to live, yet fear to die."

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