Explore "The Separation" by Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Friend after friend departs."
And they are gone -- that little band / Of friends -- the firm and true!
We feel the void which absence makes, / With joy, and sorrow too.
We joy that duties call them forth, / Clad in an armor bright; / With shield of faith, their surest guard, / And sword of truth and light.
We bid God speed their parting steps, / And bless the righteous cause: --
Where'er the path of duty points, / May duty never pause.
And yet, we sorrow most of all, / And from the heart deplore, / That we perchance on earth again / May see these friends no more.
Their works shall live when other deeds, / Which ask a nation's fame, / Have sank beneath Time's whelming wave, / Unhonored and unnamed.