Songs from "Death's Jest-Book." II. Dirge by Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. 1895. A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Songs from “Death’s Jest-Book.” II. Dirge

Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803–49)


IF thou wilt ease thine heart
Of love and all its smart,
Then sleep, dear, sleep;
And not a sorrow
Hang any tear on your eye-lashes;	5
Lie still and deep,
Sad soul, until the sea-wave washes
The rim o’ the sun to-morrow,
In eastern sky.

But wilt thou cure thine heart	10
Of love and all its smart,
Then die, dear, die;
’T is deeper, sweeter,
Than on a rose bank to lie dreaming
With folded eye;	15
And then alone, amid the beaming
Of love’s stars, thou ’lt meet her
In eastern sky.