Peace! what do tears avail?

Barry Cornwall

Barry Cornwall portrait

1787 to 1874

Poem Image
Track 1

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And hopeless lie?
To heavenly haunts, where, clad in brightness,
Reply, reply!
And she must die!
Hath she not dwelt too long
Wilt bear her there, O Death! in all her whiteness?
Why looks the lover wroth? the friend upbraiding?
Why suffer again her doom of sorrow,
The Angels lie.
In all her stainless charms,
Reply, reply!
Peace! what do tears avail?
She lies all dumb and pale,
Then, why not die?
And from her eye
Why nurse the trembling dream until to-morrow?
’Midst pain, and grief, and wrong?
Death! Take her to thine arms,
Reply, reply!
And with her fly
The spirit of lovely life is fading,

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Poet portrait