I. WHEN you were alive, at least, There were days I never met you. In the study, at the feast, By the hearth, I could forget you. Moods there were of many days When, methinks, I did not mind you. Now, oh now, in any place Wheresoe'er I go, I find you! You ... but how profoundly changed, O you dear-belov'd dead woman! Made mysterious and estranged, All-pervading, superhuman. Ah! to meet you as of yore, Kind, alert, and quick to laughter: You, the friend I loved Before; Not this tragic friend of After. II. The house was empty where you came no more; I sat in awe and dread; When, lo! I heard a hand that shook the door, And knew it was the Dead. One moment -- ah! -- the anguish took my side, The fainting of the will. "God of the living, leave me not!" I cried, And all my flesh grew chill. One moment; then I opened wide my heart And open flung the door: "What matter whence thou comest, what thou art? -- Come to me!" ... Nevermore. III. They lie at peace, the darkness fills The hollow of their empty gaze. The dust falls in their ears and stills The echo of our fruitless days; The earth takes back their baser part; The brain no longer bounds the dream; The broken vial of the heart Lets out its passion in a stream. And in this silence that they have One inner vision grows more bright: The Dead remember in the grave As I remember here to-night. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OLD POETS by ALFRED JOYCE KILMER THE LOST PLEIAD by WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS INVITATION TO A PAINTER: 1 by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM SATISFIED by HESTER A. BENEDICT THE TAMER OF STEEDS by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |