(320-329) Works of Love IX
The Works of Love in Remembering One Dead
A work of love the most unselfish, free, and faithful
The proof of love may well come in death
That's where the truth of love is tried
This work of love is of love unselfish
It's where love's freely given magnified
Where the work of love's most faithful
For in death love finds its purity
We are opened wide into the eternal
So we know of our love in certainty
Unselfish love seeks no recompense
To love the dead can't be returned
Such love then is all expense
Love for the dead goes unearned
Sometimes we cannot forget the dead
But often then that soon will pass
To remember means disinterested
All proof that a work of love can ask
The freest love feels no constraint
Much mundane love comes with compulsion
The dead make no threat or complaint
Or can treat us with repulsion
The power of time is very great
So we say “out of sight and out of mind
When we continue to the dead relate
It shows the freest love we'll find
When human love in death abides
It tests out a love most faithful
From change we cannot them deride
When we feel our love quite doubtful
We can strive to keep the dead unforgotten
That means we're changeless in our attitude
The most faithful love we have begotten
It is a work of love in it's beatitude
This work of love is a multitude
Of unselfish, free, and faithful
To not see and with love valued
These are the works of love most graceful