Poems (Odom)/Across the Way
REMEMBRANCE.
Oh! give me the past with its clear golden light,
Its beautiful dreamings that made it so bright;
The stars that looked down from the azure and smiled
So brilliantly on me when I was a child.
Before me now rolls the great sea of the past,
Whose waves all about me its jewels have cast;
And one that is dearest, and brightest, and best,
I gather one moment to press to my breast.
Its beautiful dreamings that made it so bright;
The stars that looked down from the azure and smiled
So brilliantly on me when I was a child.
Before me now rolls the great sea of the past,
Whose waves all about me its jewels have cast;
And one that is dearest, and brightest, and best,
I gather one moment to press to my breast.
I gaze on its brightness, and see in that gleam
A face that once haunted love's earliest dream.
The dream has long faded, the face passed away,
The hopes that we cherished have gone to decay.
Once madly I cast them away in my pride,
And now fling their memory-gem in the tide.
I stand at the tomb of those long-vanished years,
Where the waves, lashing high, leave it studded with tears.
A face that once haunted love's earliest dream.
The dream has long faded, the face passed away,
The hopes that we cherished have gone to decay.
Once madly I cast them away in my pride,
And now fling their memory-gem in the tide.
I stand at the tomb of those long-vanished years,
Where the waves, lashing high, leave it studded with tears.
Each tear is a jewel that bears on its breast
Some moment that has been or might have been blest;
That "might have been," does it not call up a spell,
O'er which we still linger and tenderly dwell?
The clasping of hands that once lovingly met,
Tho' forever estranged, we can never forget;
That sweet thrill of happiness—joy without name,—
That vanished as swiftly almost as it came;
Some moment that has been or might have been blest;
That "might have been," does it not call up a spell,
O'er which we still linger and tenderly dwell?
The clasping of hands that once lovingly met,
Tho' forever estranged, we can never forget;
That sweet thrill of happiness—joy without name,—
That vanished as swiftly almost as it came;
That pure exhalation of heavenly bliss—
The rapture of love's first bewildering kiss!
These things come but once in the lifetime of men;
When lost we can never recall them again.
But though the hot tears to their memory flow,
As we kneel at the grave of the dear long-ago,
There still is one joy to the aching heart pressed,
And we cling to the thought that we once have been blessed;
The rapture of love's first bewildering kiss!
These things come but once in the lifetime of men;
When lost we can never recall them again.
But though the hot tears to their memory flow,
As we kneel at the grave of the dear long-ago,
There still is one joy to the aching heart pressed,
And we cling to the thought that we once have been blessed;
That down the dim aisles of the far-away past
Some moments, bright, blissful, if brief, have been cast;
Though many bright stars in our heaven have set,
They light up the sweet vale of memory yet;
Like pearls in the breast of a dark heaving sea,
They glow in the depths of a sad memory.
Though life should be wrapped in a shroud of regret,
Thank God for remembrance—we can never forget!
Some moments, bright, blissful, if brief, have been cast;
Though many bright stars in our heaven have set,
They light up the sweet vale of memory yet;
Like pearls in the breast of a dark heaving sea,
They glow in the depths of a sad memory.
Though life should be wrapped in a shroud of regret,
Thank God for remembrance—we can never forget!