| |
| O DEATH! when all my tasks are done, | |
| And Life has yielded up | |
| The hidden joys that, one by one, | |
| Make sweet his bitter cup, | |
| Then only, at the set of sun, | 5 |
| Come thou with me to sup. | |
| |
| Thou art but Life in brief disguise, | |
| And, ere we sup, wilt lay | |
| Thy domino of sombre dyes | |
| Within my tomb away, | 10 |
| Then flash on my delighted eyes | |
| As Life, in Life’s array. | |
| |
| That night put no new jewels on | |
| But wear thy time-worn dress, | |
| No kindlier garment canst thou don, | 15 |
| Nor shall I love thee less— | |
| The hurried air will then be gone | |
| That mars thy loveliness: | |
| |
| Despite the mystery and pain | |
| That blend with love and bliss, | 20 |
| For life hereafter we are fain, | |
| Not wholly unlike this,— | |
| But life more vital, to regain | |
| What we, through weakness, miss. | |
| |
| O Death! I called thee once a friend | 25 |
| Of whom I had no fear: | |
| (Stern Life, on me his brows would bend, | |
| Nor seemed his bidding clear),— | |
| But when I saw thee hither wend, | |
| I knew that Life was dear. | 30 |
| |
| When nearer drew the shrouded face, | |
| (Day’s work unfinished still), | |
| A terror shadowed all the place, | |
| A prayer possessed my will; | |
| “A little longer grant me grace | 35 |
| While I my day fulfil!” | |
| |
| I heard a hand unlatch my door, | |
| More solemn grew my dread; | |
| No death-like phantom crossed my floor, | |
| But Life himself instead, | 40 |
| His mocking smile, unseen before, | |
| With shamefast eyes I read. | |
| |
| He smiled: “I did but masquerade | |
| A moment in thy sight, | |
| And wast thou then so sore afraid | 45 |
| Of thy friend, Death, to-night?— | |
| Go, finish what thy labour made, | |
| Nor waste the waning light.” | |
| |
| And He at last in Whom I trust, | |
| When death does frown on me, | 50 |
| Will throw the mask into the dust | |
| That I true Life may see, | |
| His garb of joy from moth and rust | |
| Eternally set free. | |
| |
| Familiar Life, but fairer far | 55 |
| Than shone his earthly grace, | |
| Which care and grief and hurry mar | |
| And bonds of time and space; | |
| Life always where earth’s loved ones are, | |
| Before Love’s unveiled face. | 60 |
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