Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904. | | | | V. Death and Bereavement | | Sonnet: “Yea, Love is strong as life” | | Lady Blanche Elizabeth Fitzroy Lindsay (1844–1912) |
| | (Suggested by Mr. Watts’s Picture of Love and Death) |
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YEA, Love is strong as life; he casts out fear, | |
| And wrath, and hate, and all our envious foes; | |
| He stands upon the threshold, quick to close | |
| The gate of happiness ere should appear | |
| Death’s dreaded presence—ay, but Death draws near, | 5 |
| And large and gray the towering outline grows, | |
| Whose face is veiled and hid; and yet Love knows | |
| Full well, too well, alas! that Death is here. | |
| Death tramples on the roses; Death comes in, | |
| Though Love, with outstretched arms and wings outspread, | 10 |
| Would bar the way—poor Love, whose wings begin | |
| To droop, half-torn as are the roses dead | |
| Already at his feet—but Death must win, | |
| And Love grows faint beneath that ponderous tread! | | | |
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