| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
| |
| I Die, Being Young |
| | | David Gray (1838–61) |
| |
| |
| “WHOM the gods love die young.” The thought is old, | |
| And yet it sooth’d the sweet Athenian mind. | |
| I take it with all pleasure, overbold | |
| Perhaps, yet to its virtue much inclin’d | |
| By an inherent love for what is fair. | 5 |
| This is the utter poetry of woe, | |
| That the bright-flashing gods should cure despair | |
| By love, and make youth precious here below. | |
| I die, being young; and, dying, could become | |
| A pagan, with the tender Grecian trust. | 10 |
| Let death, the fell anatomy, benumb | |
| The hand that writes, and fill my mouth with dust: | |
| Chant no funereal theme, but, with a choral | |
| Hymn, O ye mourners, hail immortal youth auroral. | |
| |
|
|
|
