Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Thomas Lovell Beddoes 1803–49

Songs from “Death’s Jest-Book.” II. Dirge

Beddoes

IF thou wilt ease thine heart

Of love and all its smart,

Then sleep, dear, sleep;

And not a sorrow

Hang any tear on your eye-lashes;

Lie still and deep,

Sad soul, until the sea-wave washes

The rim o’ the sun to-morrow,

In eastern sky.

But wilt thou cure thine heart

Of love and all its smart,

Then die, dear, die;

’T is deeper, sweeter,

Than on a rose bank to lie dreaming

With folded eye;

And then alone, amid the beaming

Of love’s stars, thou ’lt meet her

In eastern sky.