Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne

Rest Is Not Here

What's this vain world to me?—
Rest is not here;
False are the smiles I see,
The mirth I hear.
Where is youth's joyful glee?
Where all once dear to me?
Gone as the shadows flee—
Rest is not here.

Why did the morning shine
Blythely and fair?
Why did those tints so fine
Vanish in air?
Does not the vision say,
Faint lingering heart, away,
Why in this desert stay?
Dark land of care!

Where souls angelic soar,
Thither repair;
Let this vain world no more
Lull and ensnare.
That Heaven I love so well
Still in my heart shall dwell;
All things around me tell,
Rest is found there.