Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume I. Of Home: of Friendship. 1904. | | | | Poems of Friendship | | Parted Friends | | James Montgomery (1771–1854) |
| | | FRIEND after friend departs: | |
| Who hath not lost a friend? | |
| There is no union here of hearts | |
| That finds not here an end; | |
| Were this frail world our only rest, | 5 |
| Living or dying, none were blest. | |
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| Beyond the flight of time, | |
| Beyond this vale of death, | |
| There surely is some blessèd clime | |
| Where life is not a breath, | 10 |
| Nor life’s affections transient fire, | |
| Whose sparks fly upward to expire. | |
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| There is a world above, | |
| Where parting is unknown; | |
| A whole eternity of love, | 15 |
| Formed for the good alone; | |
| And faith beholds the dying here | |
| Translated to that happier sphere. | |
| |
| Thus star by star declines, | |
| Till all are passed away, | 20 |
| As morning high and higher shines, | |
| To pure and perfect day; | |
| Nor sink those stars in empty night; | |
| They hide themselves in heaven’s own light. | | | | |
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