Bayard Taylor image

Bayard Taylor

Jan. 11, 1825 - Dec 19, 1878

 

Love Justified

by Bayard Taylor

Within my heart 't is clear at last:
The haunting doubt in peace is laid,
Of faithlessness towards the Past,
Which made reviving love afraid.

For Love in abnegation lives;
His eye no sacrifice can dim;
He most is blessed when he gives
A greater bliss than comes to him;

And true to him is true to all
Whose brows are worth his crown to wear.
His chosen are not those who fall,
Through loss of him, to blank despair,

But those whom he has left awhile,
That in the dark their faith be tried, --
On whom his blessing yet shall smile,
If in the dark their faith abide.

No treason in my love I see,
For treason cannot dwell with truth
But later blossoms crown a tree
Too deeply set to die in youth.

The blighted promise of the old
In this new love is reconciled;
For, when my heart confessed its hold,
The lips of ancient sorrow smiled!

It brightens backward through the Past
And gilds the gloomy path I trod,
And forward, till it fades at last
In light, before the feet of God,

Where stands the saint, whose radiant brow
This solace beams, while I adore:
Be happy: if thou lovedst not now,
Thou never couldst have loved before!

Source:

The Poet's Journal
Copyright 1863
Ticknor and Fields, Boston