| |
| SURELY you’ve trodden straight | |
| To the very door! | |
| Surely you took your fate | |
| Faultlessly. Now ’tis too late | |
| To say more. | 5 |
| |
| It is evident you were right— | |
| That man has a course to go, | |
| A voyage to sail beyond the charted seas. | |
| So you have passed from sight, | |
| And our sighings blow | 10 |
| Back from that straight horizon which ends all one sees. | |
| |
| Now, like a vessel in port, | |
| You unlade your riches into death, | |
| And glad are the watchful dead to receive you there. | |
| Let the dead sort | 15 |
| Your cargo; breath from breath | |
| Let them disencumber your bounty, let them all share. | |
| |
| I imagine dead hands are brighter, | |
| Their fingers in sunset shine | |
| With jewels of passion once broken through you as a prism. | 20 |
| Dead breasts are whiter | |
| For your wrath; and yes, I opine | |
| They anoint their brows with your blood, as a perfect chrism. | |
| |
| It is evident you were right— | |
| There are bounds to break, | 25 |
| Sumptuous passage from sight, | |
| For you, and sighs down the white | |
| Path of your wake. | |
| |
| Now to the dead you’ve given | |
| Your last allegiance. | 30 |
| But woe unto us who are driven | |
| After you, hostile to heaven | |
| And its hateful legions. | |
| |
