Love Unchangeable

                              I.
Dawn may forget the East, and sunset fail 
     To unbar the golden portal of the West, 
     Or Summer perish on the icy crest 
Of hyperborean mountains, Iashed by hall
Through all the inverted solstice; the babe's wail 
     May wake no longing in the mother's breast;
     But on the soul by gloomiest fate oppressed
God's lore shall rise with beams that never pale;
A sunny hope shall sweeten all the air 
     With life's renewal, richer for the frost 
That wrapped his being in a brief despair;
     The eye of Mercy sees no spirit lost,
The ear of Pity hears the feeblest cry
And bends that Hand to save which rounds the vaulted sky!

                              II.
Hate were a thing to love if God could hate;
     His symbol the Hyena, not the Lamb,
     If from the Grave he snatched the dead to damn!
But God is Love, His will the only fate;
He is Life's centre, and souls gravitate 
     To God as to the earth our earthly frame.
Volcanic wrath may hurl a mountain's weight
     Against the sky, but every mote returns 
With equal flight; strong will may drive a soul
     Far down in darkness where the true hell burns
Black-flaming, and the waves of ruin roll,
     But it rebounds with undiminished force, 
     For all power is of God, eternal as its source.