COME not in terrors clad, to claim An unresisting prey: Come like an evening shadow, Death! So stealthily, so silently! And shut mine eyes, and steal my breath; Then willingly, O willingly, With thee I'll go away! What need to clutch with iron grasp What gentlest touch may take? What need with aspect dark to scare, So awfully, so terribly, The weary soul would hardly care, Call'd quietly, call'd tenderly, From thy dread power to break? 'Tis not as when thou markest out The young, the blest, the gay, The loved, the loving -- they who dream So happily, so hopefully; Then harsh thy kindest call may seem, And shrinkingly, reluctantly, The summon'd may obey. But I have drunk enough of life -- The cup assign'd to me Dash'd with a little sweet at best, So scantily, so scantily -- To know full well that all the rest More bitterly, more bitterly, Drugg'd to the last will be. And I may live to pain some heart That kindly cares for me: To pain, but not to bless. O Death! Come quietly -- come lovingly -- And shut mine eyes, and steal my breath; Then willingly, O willingly, I'll go away with thee! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BALLADE OF BLUE CHINA by ANDREW LANG PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 36. ASH-SHAKIR by EDWIN ARNOLD THE POET'S SOLILOQUY by E. M. AVERILL TO BARON DE STONNE WITH AIKIN'S ESSAYS ON SONG-WRITING by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE LAY OF ST. ALOYS; A LEGEND OF BLOIS by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM |