LOVERS' QUARRELS.
AN OLD MAXIM REFUTED.
They never loved as thou and I,
Who preach'd the laughing moral,
That aught which deepens love can lie
In true love's lightest quarrel.
They never knew, in times of fear,
The safety of affection,
Nor sought, when angry fate drew near,
Love's altar for protection.
They never knew how kindness grows
A vigil and a care,
Nor watch'd beside the heart's repose
In silence and in prayer;
For weaker love be storms enough
To frighten back desire;
We have no need of gales so rough
To fan our steadier fire.
'Twere sweet to kiss thy tears away,
If tears those eyes must know;
But sweeter still to hear thee say,
"Thou never badst them flow."
The wrongful word will rankling live
When wrong itself has ceased,
And love, that all things may forgive,
Can ne'er forget the least.
If pain can not from life depart,
There's pain enough around us;
The rose we wear upon the heart
Should have no thorn to wound us.
And hollow sounds the wildest vow,
If memory wake, the while,
The bitter taunt—the darken'd brow,
The stinging of a smile.