| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | III. Oblivion
Sonnet: ‘No more these passion-worn faces shall men’s eyes’ | | By Oliver Madox Brown (1855–1874) |
| | | NO more these passion-worn faces shall men’s eyes | |
| Behold in life. Death leaves no trace behind | |
| Of their wild hate and wilder love, grown blind | |
| In desperate longing, more than the foam which lies | |
| Splashed up awhile where the showered spray descries | 5 |
| The waves whereto their cold limbs were resign’d; | |
| Yet ever doth the sea-wind’s undefin’d | |
| Vague wailing shudder with their dying sighs. | |
| For all men’s souls ’twixt sorrow and love are cast | |
| As on the earth each lingers his brief space, | 10 |
| While surely nightfall comes where each man’s face | |
| In death’s obliteration sinks at last | |
| As a deserted wind-tossed sea’s foam-trace— | |
| Life’s chilled boughs emptied by death’s autumn-blast. | | | | |
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