Love In Hades.

I saw Love pass with Charon down
The pale infernal tide,
To visit in the starless town
All who for him had died.
The gay God and the old Ghost came
Slow to that sleepy shore,
And a dead passion burned like flame
Before each true-love's door!
Into this place and that he stept:
The eyes still held their tears,
Though some had their strange sorrow kept
More than ten thousand years.
He saw the old and young who went
Devoid of life, yet who,
Though all their joys on earth were spent,
Were to their dream-loves true.
He saw all who had worshipped him
Before thought's light withdrew,
Until the ages seemed to swim
Round him there dying too!
And he could feel his faint heart beat
A ghostly tune with theirs,
As he, too, might cease to compete
With the decaying years.
Ay! though a God, he went aghast
From the mysterious shore,
And Charon smiled when he at last
Touched time with him once more.