Page:Poems - Bryant (1854).djvu/20

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POEMS.
Like spots of earth where angel-feet have stepped—Are holy; and high-dreaming bards have toldOf times when worth was crowned, and faith was kept,Ere friendship grew a snare, or love waxed cold—Those pure and happy times—the golden days of old.
III.Peace to the just man's memory,—let it growGreener with years, and blossom through the flightOf ages; let the mimic canvas showHis calm benevolent features; let the lightStream on his deeds of love, that shunned the sightOf all but heaven, and in the book of fame,The glorious record of his virtues write,And hold it up to men, and bid them claimA palm like his, and catch from him the hallowed flame.
IV.But oh, despair not of their fate who riseTo dwell upon the earth when we withdraw!Lo! the same shaft by which the righteous dies,Strikes through the wretch that scoffed at mercy's law,And trode his brethren down, and felt no aweOf Him who will avenge them. Stainless worth,Such as the sternest age of virtue saw,Ripens, meanwhile, till time shall call it forthFrom the low modest shade, to light and bless the earth.
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