'Tis so sudden and strange To me. You are used to the dead, -- Used to see The closed eyes, to arrange The cold hands, the stiff head. You can't feel as I feel; For you Know the shrouds you will need The year through. You buy land, and a deal Of trade warrants the deed. A week since I saw her. The night Seems now distant as Noah. Ah, -- how bright Was the kitchen; like myrrh Smelled the fresh-washed pine floor. She talked, laughed, I was dumb, Until, Shamefaced, I showed the ring. O, I still See her lips as her thumb She slipped through the great thing. For you see I told clerk At store, 'Twas for me, was the ring. Now I swore It was big as a park, Said a smaller I'd bring. Then, next day, she fell sick, -- A maid With no home of her own, Though she prayed, Yet they sent her off quick To the work-house, alone. While I laughed o'er my loom, And felt, Now and then, for the ring 'Neath my belt, Wishing week-end would come, Little dreaming the sting. Planned the house we should have, We two; Carpet, table, chairs, stove, What we'd do: -- She lay dying, the grave Was a-beckoning my love. Aye, she died more of shame? 'Tis like. I'll complete here my vow. I could strike: -- But 'tis useless to blame! May she have the ring now? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHERE MY BOOKS GO by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS A LINE-STORM SONG by ROBERT FROST TASTING THE EARTH by JAMES OPPENHEIM THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 44. FAREWELL TO JULIET (6) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT IT WAS DEEP APRIL by KATHERINE HARRIS BRADLEY SPECULA by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN |