Bards of Passion and of Mirth
　　BARDS of Passion and of Mirth

　　Ye have left your souls on earth!

　　Have ye souls in heaven too

　　Doubled-lived in regions new?

　　Yes and those of heaven commune 5

　　With the spheres of sun and moon;

　　With the noise of fountains wondrous

　　And the parle of voices thund'rous;

　　With the whisper of heaven's trees

　　And one another in soft ease 10

　　Seated on Elysian lawns

　　Browsed by none but Dian's fawns;

　　Underneath large blue-bells tented

　　Where the daisies are rose-scented

　　And the rose herself has got 15

　　Perfume which on earth is not;

　　Where the nightingale doth sing

　　Not a senseless trancèd thing

　　But divine melodious truth;

　　Philosophic numbers smooth; 20

　　Tales and golden histories

　　Of heaven and its mysteries.

　　Thus ye live on high and then

　　On the earth ye live again;

　　And the souls ye left behind you 25

　　Teach us here the way to find you

　　Where your other souls are joying

　　Never slumber'd never cloying.

　　Here your earth-born souls still speak

　　To mortals of their little week; 30

　　Of their sorrows and delights;

　　Of their passions and their spites;

　　Of their glory and their shame;

　　What doth strengthen and what maim.

　　Thus ye teach us every day 35

　　Wisdom though fled far away.

　　Bards of Passion and of Mirth

　　Ye have left your souls on earth!

　　Ye have souls in heaven too

　　Double-lived in regions new! 40