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HE bent above: so still her breath | |
What air she breathed he could not say, | |
Whether in worlds of life or death: | |
So softly ebbed away, away, | |
The life that had been light to him, | 5 |
So fled her beauty leaving dim | |
The emptying chambers of his heart | |
Thrilled only by the pang and smart, | |
The dull and throbbing agony | |
That suffers still, yet knows not why. | 10 |
Loves immortality so blind | |
Dreams that all things with it conjoined | |
Must share with it immortal day: | |
But not of thisbut not of this | |
The touch, the eyes, the laugh, the kiss, | 15 |
Fall from it and it goes its way. | |
So blind he wept above her clay, | |
I did not think that you could die. | |
Only some veil would cover you | |
Our loving eyes could still pierce through; | 20 |
And see through dusky shadows still | |
Move as of old your wild sweet will, | |
Impatient every heart to win | |
And flash its heavenly radiance in. | |
Though all the worlds were sunk in rest | 25 |
The ruddy star within his breast | |
Would croon its tale of ancient pain, | |
Its sorrow that would never wane, | |
Its memory of the days of yore | |
Moulded in beauty evermore. | 30 |
Ah, immortality so blind, | |
To dream all things with it conjoined | |
Must follow it from star to star | |
And share with it immortal years. | |
The memory, yearning, grief, and tears, | 35 |
Fall from it and it goes afar. | |
He walked at night along the sands, | |
He saw the stars dance overhead, | |
He had no memory of the dead, | |
But lifted up exultant hands | 40 |
To hail the future like a boy, | |
The myriad paths his feet might press. | |
Unhaunted by old tenderness | |
He felt an inner secret joy | |
A spirit of unfettered will | 45 |
Through light and darkness moving still | |
Within the All to find its own, | |
To be immortal and alone. | |
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