Oh let me see the friends I love
More close around me clinging;
As waves successive onward move
My life its way is winging.
And faces grave and faces gay
My busy footsteps meeting,
Like me will pass from earth away,
Like mine, their breath is fleeting.
The wavelets fondly float in love;
The clouds embrace in flying;
The glorious stars that shine above
In folds of love are lying.
Each little flower that decks my way,
Each blade of grass upspringing,
Each living rill in careless play
Along the meadow singing--
All breathe a voice of gentle love,
Which on the heart is falling,
Like spirit whispers from above
That seem together calling.
And listening, wrapt in silent thought,
It thus conveys a meaning;
As time recedes, thy life is short,
And but an idle dreaming.
And thou shalt fade, as fades the flower;
Beneath the turf lie sleeping
Thy friends, who, through life's transient hour,
Their holy guard were keeping.
Oh let me see the friends I love
More close around me clinging;
As waves successive onward move,
My years their way are winging.
