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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  The Memory of the Heart

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

Poems of Friendship

The Memory of the Heart

Daniel Webster (1782–1852)

IF stores of dry and learnèd lore we gain,

We keep them in the memory of the brain;

Names, things, and facts,—whate’er we knowledge call,—

There is the common ledger for them all;

And images on this cold surface traced

Make slight impression, and are soon effaced.

But we ’ve a page, more glowing and more bright,

On which our friendship and our love to write;

That these may never from the soul depart,

We trust them to the memory of the heart.

There is no dimming, no effacement there;

Each new pulsation keeps the record clear;

Warm, golden letters all the tablet fill,

Nor lose their lustre till the heart stands still.