David Gray
A Golden Wedding Poem.
I.
O Love, whose patient pilgrim feet
Life's longest path have trod;
Whose ministry hath symbolled sweet
The dearer love of God,--
The sacred myrtle wreathes again
Thine altar, as of old;
And what was green with summer, then,
Is mellowed, now, to gold.
II.
Not now, as then, the Future's face
Is flushed with fancy's light,
But Memory, with a milder grace,
Shall rule the feast, to-night.
Blest was the sun of joy that shone,
Nor less the blinding shower,--
The bud of fifty years agone
Is love's perfected flower!
III.
O Memory, ope thy mystic door;
O dream of youth, return;
And let the lights that gleamed of yore
Beside this altar burn!
The past is plain; 't was love designed
E'en sorrow's iron chain,
And mercy's shining thread has twined
With the dark warp of pain.
IV.
So be it, still. O Thou who hast
That younger bridal blest,
Till the May-morn of love has passed
To evening's golden west,--
Come to this later Cana, Lord,
And, at Thy touch divine,
The water of that earlier board
To-night shall turn to wine.
A Golden Wedding Poem.
I.
O Love, whose patient pilgrim feet
Life's longest path have trod;
Whose ministry hath symbolled sweet
The dearer love of God,--
The sacred myrtle wreathes again
Thine altar, as of old;
And what was green with summer, then,
Is mellowed, now, to gold.
II.
Not now, as then, the Future's face
Is flushed with fancy's light,
But Memory, with a milder grace,
Shall rule the feast, to-night.
Blest was the sun of joy that shone,
Nor less the blinding shower,--
The bud of fifty years agone
Is love's perfected flower!
III.
O Memory, ope thy mystic door;
O dream of youth, return;
And let the lights that gleamed of yore
Beside this altar burn!
The past is plain; 't was love designed
E'en sorrow's iron chain,
And mercy's shining thread has twined
With the dark warp of pain.
IV.
So be it, still. O Thou who hast
That younger bridal blest,
Till the May-morn of love has passed
To evening's golden west,--
Come to this later Cana, Lord,
And, at Thy touch divine,
The water of that earlier board
To-night shall turn to wine.