DEATH stately came to a young man, and said If thou wert dead, What matter?" The young man replied, See my young bride, Whose life were all one blackness if I died. My land requires me; and the world's self, too, Methinks, would miss some things that I can do." Then Death in scorn this only said, Be dead. And so he was. And soon another's hand Made rich his land. The sun, too, of three summers had the might To bleach the widow's hue, light and more light, Again to bridal white. And nothing seem'd to miss beneath that sun His work undone. But Death soon met another man, whose eye Was Nature's spy; Who said, Forbear thy too triumphant scorn. The weakest born Of all the sons of men, is by his birth Heir of the Might Eternal; and this Earth Is subject to him in his place. Thou leav'st no trace. Thou,- the mock Tyrant that men fear and hate, Grim fleshless Fate, Cold, dark, and wormy thing of loss and tears! Not in the sepulchres Thou dwellest, but in my own crimson'd heart; Where while it beats we call thee Life. Depart! A name, a shadow, into any gulf, Out of this world, which is not thine, But mine: Or stay I-because thou art Only Myself." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET TO GEORGE SAND: 2. A DESIRE by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THE POET'S SONG FOR HIS WIFE by BRYAN WALLER PROCTER A CHARACTER by ALFRED TENNYSON E TENEBRIS [FROM THE SHADOWS] by OSCAR WILDE |