Classic Poem

Shall I forget you, when long years have flown,
And all the loveliness that is your own
Has into waste and withered wrinkles grown,
And your eye's tremulous magnificence
Is but a memory of the failing sense?
Ah, while your heart is great, and God is good,
I cannot, love, forget you, if I would!

Shall I forget you? Oh when that shall be,
I must have lost the light from land or sea,
I must have closed my eyes eternally!
For while my heart beats, or my spirit lives,
'Mid all the hopes that gracious Heaven gives,
To love you still, as here on earth I love,
Oh, this it is, that perfect Heaven to prove!