POOR soul doth to the body say: I'll never leave thee, but I'll stay With thee; yea, I with thee will sink In death and night, destruction drink. Thou ever wert my second I, And round me clungest lovingly, As though a dress of satin bright, All lined throughout with ermine white -- Alas! I've come to nakedness, A mere abstraction, bodiless, Reduced a blessed nullity In yon bright realms of light to be, In the cold halls of heaven up yonder, Where the Immortals silent wander, And gape upon me, clatt'ring by In leaden slippers wearily. 'Tis quite intolerable; stay, Stay with me, my dear body, pray. The body to poor soul replied: Cheer up, be not dissatisfied! We peacefully must learn to bear What Fate apportions as our share. I was the lamp's wick; I must now Consume away; the spirit, thou, Wilt be selected by-and-by To sparkle as a star on high Of purest radiance. I'm but rags. Mere stuff, like rotten tinder bags, Collapsing fast, and nothing worth, Becoming, what I was, mere earth. Farewell! take comfort, cease complaining; Perchance 'tis far more entertaining In heaven than now supposed by thee. If thou shouldst e'er the great bear see (Not Meyer-beer) in those bright climes, Greet him from me a thousand times. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT PORT ROYAL by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE ROSE TREE by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS COWBOY VERSUS BRONCHO by JAMES BARTON ADAMS DON QUIXOTE by CRAVEN LANGSTROTH BETTS THE FLIGHT OF TIME by J. K. BLAKE TO AN ABSENT FRIEND by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE |