Page:Poems Curwen.djvu/64

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56
the loss of the drummond castle.

Was it God's will? or man's error?
We shall never understand;
Morning's light revealed the dead
Cast on a foreign strand—
But tended—O, thank Heaven for that—
By Pity's gentle hand.

The kindly priest, who scrupled not
To read his funeral rite
Over our dead, has surely found
Favour in Heaven's sight.
O, what are creeds, unless men keep
The lamp of love alight?

And those warm-hearted Bretons who
Shed sympathetic tears
Over the dead: for every tear
God send them fruitful years;
And bless the sunny land of France
For this good deed of theirs.

And ye who sorrow for the dead—
The lov'd ones homeward bound—
Weep not, for they have reached the port
Where anchorage sure is found;
And now they wait to welcome you,
When ye are homeward bound.