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POETRY







            Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
          Our noisy years seem moments in the being
          Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake,
          To perish never;
          Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,
          Nor Man nor Boy,
          Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
          Can utterly abolish or destroy!
          Hence in a season of calm weather
          Though inland far we be,
          Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea
          Which brought us hither,
          Can in a moment travel thither,
          And see the Children sport upon the shore,
          And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.

          Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
          And let the young Lambs bound
                                As to the tabor's sound!
                                We in thought will join your throng,
                                Ye that pipe and ye that play,
                                Ye that through your hearts to-day
                                Feel the gladness of the May!
                                What though the radiance which was once so
                                bright
          Be now for ever taken from my sight,
          Though nothing can bring back the hour
          Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
          We will grieve not, rather find
          Strength in what remains behind;
          In the primal sympathy
          Which having been must ever be;
          In the soothing thoughts that spring
          Out of human suffering;
          In the faith that looks through death,


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