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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LOVE'S RETROSPECT by JOHN BANISTER TABB

First Line: I KNEW THAT HE WAS DYING; FOR THE LEAVES
Last Line: THE MORE THAN ALL BY WEALTH UNWIDOWED CAST.
Subject(s): DEATH; DEAD, THE;

I KNEW that he was dying; for the leaves
Late-fallen, shivered on the frosty ground,
Disconsolate, with the foreboding sound
That Autumn whispers to the heart that grieves.
The sunshine, slanting upward, smote the sheaves
O'ershadowing the hill-tops ranged around,
And where the swallow's empty nest was found,
Spattered, as if with blood, the sheltering eaves.

Twin fires together faded: and but one
Rewakened o'er a world henceforth to me
In everlasting twilight. To the Past
The Present pays its tribute, whereupon
Each moment coins the selfsame effigy, --
The more than all by wealth unwidowed cast.



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