Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Watson. b. 1858854. The Great Misgiving
‘NOT ours,’ say some, ‘the thought of death to dread; | |
Asking no heaven, we fear no fabled hell: | |
Life is a feast, and we have banqueted— | |
Shall not the worms as well? | |
‘The after-silence, when the feast is o’er, | 5 |
And void the places where the minstrels stood, | |
Differs in nought from what hath been before, | |
And is nor ill nor good.’ | |
Ah, but the Apparition—the dumb sign— | |
The beckoning finger bidding me forgo | 10 |
The fellowship, the converse, and the wine, | |
The songs, the festal glow! | |
And ah, to know not, while with friends I sit, | |
And while the purple joy is pass’d about, | |
Whether ’tis ampler day divinelier lit | 15 |
Or homeless night without; | |
And whether, stepping forth, my soul shall see | |
New prospects, or fall sheer—a blinded thing! | |
There is, O grave, thy hourly victory, | |
And there, O death, thy sting. | 20 |