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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LOVE AFTER DEATH by ARTHUR WILLIAM EDGAR O'SHAUGHNESSY

Poet Analysis

First Line: THERE IS AN EARTHLY GLIMMER IN THE TOMB
Last Line: AND HOW THAT BROKE, AND HOW IT CAME TO THIS.
Subject(s): DEATH; LOVE; DEAD, THE;

THERE is an earthly glimmer in the Tomb:
And, healed in their own tears and with long sleep,
My eyes unclose and feel no need to weep;
But, in the corner of the narrow room,
Behold Love's spirit standeth, with the bloom
That things made deathless by Death's self may keep.
O what a change! for now his looks are deep,
And a long patient smile he can assume:
While Memory, in some soft low monotone,
Is pouring like an oil into mine ear
The tale of a most short and hollow bliss,
That I once throbbed indeed to call my own,
Holding it hardly between joy and fear,—
And how that broke, and how it came to this.



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