SO at last passing (the great sea stilled, the raging ocean)—passing away, All sorrow left behind, the great intolerable burdens which men vainly try to carry, All all abandoned, left there lying— Suddenly lightened, like a bird that shakes itself free from the limed twigs, Soaring, soaring, into joy supernal passing, Lo! the dead we leave behind and pass to the realms of the living. And not we alone. By our love poured out, by the manifold threads and strands of attachment to others—which cannot now be severed; By not one inwardly refused or disowned whom we have ever met; By the dear arms of lovers circling each other all night long, by their kisses and mingled breath, And love by night and day—thinking of each other when absent, rejoicing so to be near; By tramps over the hills, and days spent together in the woods and by watersides; By our life-long faithful love—(ah! what more beautiful, what in all this world more precious!) By the life-long faithful comradeship now springing on all sides, the Theban band henceforth to overcome the world—its heroisms and deaths— And him who gave the calamus-token first; By all these— Not alone, no longer alone— But drawing an innumerable multitude with us, Into the regions of the sun, into the supernal aether, With love perfected, bodies changed, and joy—ah! joy on earth unutterable— Lo! the dead we leave behind, and pass to the realms of the living. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONGS ON THE VOICES OF BIRDS; SEA-MEWS IN WINTER TIME by JEAN INGELOW JACK AND JILL (1) by MOTHER GOOSE THE HOUSE OF LIFE: THE SONNET (INTRODUCTION) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 72 by PHILIP SIDNEY PSALM 38. DOMINE NE IN FURORE by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE IN THE SUBJUNCTIVE by BERTON BRALEY TO MR. D'URFEY, UPON HIS INCOMPARABLE BALLADS CALL'D BY HIM LYRIC ODES by THOMAS (TOM) BROWN |