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ON THE DEATH OF LONGFELLOW, by                    
First Line: Thy end hath come! An end will come to all
Last Line: The song that's never mute, and evermore shall be.
Subject(s): Death; Poetry & Poets; Dead, The


THY end hath come! An end will come to all;
As dies each day, declining from the noon;
Here still a breathing world will wait the call
That each in turn must answer, late or soon.
Yet Earth will be re-peopled o'er and o'er
Ere one enrich in wealth of song that store
Bequeath'd by thee, sweet singer of the dulcet tune!

Hid not in clouds of dark bewildering haze --
Which oft conceal the poverty of thought,
While pomp of diction dazzles with the blaze,
And fire of wordy passion, roused and wrought
By furious affectation to appear
All glowing love, enduring and sincere --
Thine is affection deep and pure, without a blot.

Pure as the crystal bells upon the stream,
That sings for ever pure, hath been thy lays;
Gentle and sweet and loving is thy theme,
And strains of music swelling to thy praise.
Onward and upward, as the years grow old
And change, yet still thy melodies will hold
The soul of fancy captive to thy winning ways.

The gems of wisdom fill thy Psalm of Life,
Footsteps of angels Voices of the Night;
With toil the Blacksmith holds a willing strife;
Evangeline hath charms of dear delight;
The love of Standish given to his friend;
And Hiawatha's legends wild, that end
When soars his warrior spirit to the Land of Light.

Sublimity and beauty fill the strains
That best adorn the born-poet's muse;
The treasures of his wisdom are the gains
We cherish by his teaching, that imbues
The soul with moral virtue, or the mirth
That ne'er contaminates, and brings to birth
The laughter of the gay -- yet can the grave amuse.

Too full of true sincerity of soul,
The world's frivolities were not for thee;
A flow of feeling, swelling to a whole,
Tuned all thy numbers like a rippling sea
That sings to heaven, as the boundless main
Reverberates and re-echoes back again
The song that's never mute, and evermore shall be.





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