| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | Incarnation | | By Thomas Stephens Collier (1842–1893) |
| | | IF I must lie asleep with Death at last,— | |
| Death, that stern monarch of supreme desire, | |
| Who, when he sees aught that would fain aspire | |
| To better things, sends his swift-chilling blast, | |
| And lo, a silence on its hope is cast, | 5 |
| And only embers mark where once was fire,— | |
| I pray that fate will build my funeral pyre | |
| Amid some mighty ruin of the past. | |
| There let me sleep, where centuries ago | |
| Was love, and mirth, and kisses sweet as wine, | 10 |
| And blooms whose ashes have a fragrant breath; | |
| For then, perchance, my soul will commune know | |
| With one who saw the primal sunlight shine | |
| Before the world had known the cold of death. | | | | |
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