Love That Lives

Dear face - bright, glinting hair;     Dear life, whose heart is mine -     The thought of you is prayer,     The love of you divine.     In starlight, or in rain;     In the sunset's shrouded glow;     Ever, with joy or pain,     To you my quick thoughts go     Like winds or clouds, that fleet     Across the hungry space     Between, and find you, sweet,     Where life again wins grace.     Now, as in that once young     Year that so softly drew     My heart to where it clung,     I long for, gladden in you.     And when in the silent hours     I whisper your sacred name,     Like an altar-fire it showers     My blood with fragrant flame!     Perished is all that grieves;     And lo, our old-new joys     Are gathered as in sheaves,     Held in love's equipoise.     Ours is the love that lives;     Its springtime blossoms blow     'Mid the fruit that autumn gives,     And its life outlasts the snow.