Page:Poems of Sentiment and Imagination.djvu/88

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84
THE HEART'S REQUIEM.

In one poor human heart
These thrilhng accents start,
And mingle into music wild and deep;
Swelling in one rich strain
Of earthly joy and pain,
Then trembling softly, die away to sleep.


O for earth's hapless trust!
Its "mingled mind and dust"
Make with each other such continual strife!
O for the hapless faith
That meets reward in death,
Mourning the bitter chilliness of life.


Earth, earth! thy sods have pressed
Lightly on many a breast
That could not bear its weight of living woe;
Full many a heart hath come
To thy embrace of gloom,
Blessing thy coldness to the world's false glow.


"One more, then, one more strain
To earthly joy and pain,
A rich, and deep, and passionate farewell!
Pour out each fervent thought
With fear, hope, trembling fraught,
Into the notes the last this heart shall swell."