“Enjoying each the other’s good,”
he feels to have attracted the approving Shade of Hallam, and this reluctantly fades away, with the tender parting:
“Farewell, we lose ourselves in light.”
If indeed we are to be merged in the universal Soul, let us have at least one more parting, before we lose our individualities in the Great Being.
XLVIII.
This Poem disclaims any attempt at settling religious difficulties. The verses are of “sorrow born,” the result of private grief; and if misunderstood, and open to the charge of attempting to solve such grave questions of doubt as affect some minds, they would deserve the scorn of men.
Sorrow does not undertake severe argument; but if a “slender shade of doubt” flits before it, it would make this doubt a “vassal unto love,” and yield to Love’s supreme authority.
Love ought to be our ruler and guide, and these lays of sadness are merely
“Short swallow-flights of song, that dip
Their wings in tears, and skim away.”