Love on! love on! but not the things that own

The fleeting beauty of a summer day;

Truth, virtue, spring from God’s eternal throne,

Nor quit the spirit when it leaves the clay:

Love them! love them!

Love on! love on! though death and earthly change

Bring mournful silence to a darkened home;

Still let the heart rest where no eye grows strange,

Where never falls a shadow from the tomb:

Love there! love there!

Love on! love on! the voice of grief and wrong

Comes from the palace and the poor man’s cot;

Bid the proud bend, and bid the weak be strong,

And life’s tired pilgrim meekly bear his lot:

Give strength! give peace!

Love on! love on! and though the evening still

Wear the stern clouds that veiled thy noonday sun,

With changeless trust, with calm, unwavering will,

Work! bravely work! till the last hour be done:

Love God! love Man!