| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | VI. The Grave’s Triumph
The Choice | | By Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) |
| | | EAT thou and drink; to-morrow thou shalt die. | |
| Surely the earth, that ’s wise being very old, | |
| Needs not our help. Then loose me, love, and hold | |
| Thy sultry hair up from my face; that I | |
| May pour for thee this golden wine, brim-high, | 5 |
| Till round the glass thy fingers glow like gold. | |
| We’ll drown all hours: thy song, while hours are toll’d, | |
| Shall leap, as fountains veil the changing sky. | |
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| Now kiss, and think that there are really those, | |
| My own high-bosomed beauty, who increase | 10 |
| Vain gold, vain lore, and yet might choose our way! | |
| Through many years they toil; then comes a day | |
| They die not,—never having lived,—but cease; | |
| And round their narrow lips the mould falls close. | | | | |
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