Forever

Those we love truly never die, 
Though year by year the sad memorial wreath, 
A ring and flowers, types of life and death, 
Are laid upon their graves. 

For death the pure life saves, 
And life all pure is love; and love can reach 
From heaven to earth, and nobler lessons teach 
Than those by mortals read. 

Well blest is he who has a dear one dead: 
A friend he has whose face will never change— 
A dear communion that will not grow strange; 
The anchor of a love is death. 

The blessed sweetness of a loving breath 
Will reach our cheek all fresh through weary years. 
For her who died long since, ah! waste not tears, 
She's thine unto the end. 

Thank God for one dead friend, 
With face still radiant with the light of truth, 
Whose love comes laden with the scent of youth, 
Through twenty years of death.