Stern nature is the all-unmindful mother
Who first affiliates our souls to Thee,
O God, then sends them prayerless from her knee
To learn which love to cherish, which to smother,
Show us or in her name, or in some other
Not bound like her by harsh necessity,
What of man's hope hath taught the lips most free,
His first, God's chosen Son, and man's best brother.

Thus He declares the Father's mind, He saith:
'God is the God of faithful spirits fled,
But near His heart as when they still drew breath;
God is He of the living, not the dead!'
Take comfort, lovers, mourning dear love lost,
How dream you God would love at such a cost?