| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | XII. Love and Death
‘Who shall go first’ | | Anonymous |
| | | WHO shall go first to the shadowy land, | |
| My love or I? | |
| Whose will it be in grief to stand | |
| And press the cold, unanswering hand, | |
| Wipe from the brow the dew of death, | 5 |
| And catch the softly fluttering breath, | |
| Breathe the loved name nor hear reply, | |
| In anguish watch the glazing eye— | |
| His or mine? | |
| |
| Which shall bend o’er the wounded sod, | 10 |
| My love or I? | |
| Commending the precious soul to God, | |
| Till the doleful fall of the muffled clod | |
| Startles the mind to a consciousness | |
| Of its bitter anguish and life-distress, | 15 |
| Dropping the pall o’er the love-lit past | |
| With a mournful murmur, ‘The last, the last’— | |
| My love or I? | |
| |
| Which shall return to the desolate home, | |
| My love or I? | 20 |
| And list for a step that shall never come, | |
| And hark for a voice that must still be dumb, | |
| While the half-stunned senses wander back | |
| To the cheerless life and thorny track, | |
| Where the silent room and the vacant chair | 25 |
| Have memories sweet and hard to bear— | |
| My love or I?… | | | | |
|
|
