From all the rest I single out you, having a message for you, You are to die -- let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate, I am exact and merciless, but I love you -- there is no escape for you. Softly I lay my right hand upon you, you just feel it, I do not argue, I bend my head close and half envelop it, I sit quietly by, I remain faithful, I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor, I absolve you from all except yourself spiritual bodily, that is eternal, you yourself will surely escape, The corpse you will leave will be but excrementitious. The sun bursts through in unlooked-for directions, Strong thoughts fill you and confidence, you smile, You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick, You do not see the medicines, you do not mind the weeping friends, I am with you, I exclude others from you, there is nothing to be commiserated, I do not commiserate, I congratulate you. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PENMAEN POOL by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS WINTER HEAVENS by GEORGE MEREDITH TO MR. THOMAS SOUTHERNE, ON HIS BIRTHDAY, 1742 by ALEXANDER POPE BY A NORFOLK BROAD by ADA CAMBRIDGE GUNS OF VERDUN by PATRICK REGINALD CHALMERS THE PRESENT AND THE PAST IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY by CHRETIEN DE TROYES AN ANATOMY OF THE WORLD: THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY. A FUNERALL ELEGIE by JOHN DONNE |