COME not in terrors clad, to claim An unresisting prey: Come like an evening shadow, Death! So stealthily, so silently! And shut mine eyes, and steal my breath; Then willingly, O willingly, With thee I'll go away! What need to clutch with iron grasp What gentlest touch may take? What need with aspect dark to scare, So awfully, so terribly, The weary soul would hardly care, Call'd quietly, call'd tenderly, From thy dread power to break? 'Tis not as when thou markest out The young, the blest, the gay, The loved, the loving -- they who dream So happily, so hopefully; Then harsh thy kindest call may seem, And shrinkingly, reluctantly, The summon'd may obey. But I have drunk enough of life -- The cup assign'd to me Dash'd with a little sweet at best, So scantily, so scantily -- To know full well that all the rest More bitterly, more bitterly, Drugg'd to the last will be. And I may live to pain some heart That kindly cares for me: To pain, but not to bless. O Death! Come quietly -- come lovingly -- And shut mine eyes, and steal my breath; Then willingly, O willingly, I'll go away with thee! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE VOICE IN THE GLOAMING by WILLIAM ALLAN ODE TO THE CONNECTICUT RIVER by JOSIAS LYNDON ARNOLD THE INVITATION by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF ROBERT RUISSEAUX by ROBERT BURNS COLUMBUS, THE DISCOVERER by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON REMEMBERED SONGS by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON |