Pike County Ballads and Other Poems

REMORSE.

  Sad is the thought of sunniest days
    Of love and rapture perished,
  And shine through memory's tearful haze
    The eyes once fondliest cherished.
  Reproachful is the ghost of toys
    That charmed while life was wasted.
  But saddest is the thought of joys
    That never yet were tasted.

  Sad is the vague and tender dream
    Of dead love's lingering kisses,
  To crushed hearts haloed by the gleam
    Of unreturning blisses;
  Deep mourns the soul in anguished pride
    For the pitiless death that won them,—
  But the saddest wail is for lips that died
    With the virgin dew upon them.