SPREAD a feast with choicest viands -- Friends, 't will be my very last; Bring the rarest flowers to grace it -- Haste, my sands of life flow fast; Place an asp beneath the lotus That shall light me to the grave With its starry petals' splendor; Weep not, let your hearts be brave. Speed, Octavia, with thy minions -- Fire thy heart with deadly hate! Thou wilt miss the royal victim -- Cleopatra rules her fate! She defies Rome's conquering legions! Let them triumph in her fall! What is earthly pomp or greatness? -- Love, thy love outweighs it all! Thrones and sceptres are but trifles To my spirit's yearning pain; What were fortune's gifts without @3thee@1 I would lose the world to gain? Let no base heart tell our story; Ages, speak, when time unurns These dull ashes, say to Ages, Soul to soul their love still burns. Fatal asp, thy sleep's not endless, That the morrow's dawn will prove; I shall reign in lands elysian, Antony's proud Queen of Love! Isis and Osiris, hear me! Hear me, gods of boundless power! Ye have tasted deathless passion! Ye will guide me to his bower! Pardon, mighty ones, the error If Octavia I have wronged, Judged by higher laws supernal; Ah! how earthly passions thronged. Overpowering heart and reason, Nature, answering Nature's call, Rushed as cloud responsive rushes On to cloud, to meet and -- fall. Antony, my love, I'm dying! Curdles fast life's crimson tide, But no dark Plutonian shadows Fall between us to divide. Hark! the Stygian waters swelling, Call me, love, with thee to rest, -- Death I fear not since thou braved it, Pillowed on my aching breast. Strange emotions fill my bosom As I near the vast unknown; Yet my heart still throbs in dying, Antony, for thee alone. Oh! "I feel immortal longings," -- I can brave stern Pluto's frown, -- Robe me in my regal garments, Deck with jewels, sceptre, crown. Antony! I'm coming! coming! Open, open wide thine arms! Ah! the blissful hope of union Robs the grave of its alarms. See! the glorious heroes beckon O'er the Stygian water's swell. I shall have immortal crowning! Egypt -- dear old Nile! -- farewell. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PRAYER FOR COURAGE by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE MYSTIC'S VISION by MATHILDE BLIND JEPHTHA'S DAUGHTER by GEORGE GORDON BYRON GLOIRE DE DIJON by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE CLORINDA AND DAMON by ANDREW MARVELL THE MOCKING-BIRD by FRANK LEBBY STANTON |