That
could the dead, whose dying eyes
Were closed with wail, resume their life,
They would but find in child and wife
An
iron welcome when they rise:
’Twas
well, indeed, when warm with wine,
To pledge them with a kindly tear,
To talk them o’er, to wish them here,
To
count their memories half divine;
But
if they came who past away,
Behold their brides in other hands;
The hard heir strides about their lands,
And
will not yield them for a day.
Yea,
tho’ their sons were none of these,
Not less the yet-loved sire would make
Confusion worse than death, and shake
The
pillars of domestic peace.
Ah
dear, but come thou back to me:
Whatever change the years have wrought,
I find not yet one lonely thought
That
cries against my wish for thee.