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For ever fair, beyond the rolling spheres,
Where years no more shall ravish youth away,
Nor love be parted from its loved again.

  Edward, thy Mary's voice for thee has lost
Naught of its sweetness; it delights thee still,
Like old familiar music. On that brow,
Mary, that in its manliness did charm
Thy girlhood's eve, not less thou lovest still
To gaze, though o'er it age hath spread his snows.
Ah! richer now, in either breast, the flow
Of love's pure current, than when ye did speak
With trembling ecstasy the marriage vow
Before God's altar. Then that current welled
From confidence and hope; from knowledge now,
And mutual virtues tested, till, like gold
Fresh from the crucible and proved by fires,
They shine with lustre that no doubt can dim;
Blest in each other, ye are doubly blest.