The Poetical Works of George Barlow In Ten [Eleven] Volumes |
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 | The Poetical Works of George Barlow |  |
195
THE CONQUEST OF DEATH
The violets shudder at thee, the roses dread
Along the garden-paths thy ghostly tread,
O death!
The sea-birds dart across the rocky narrows:
Their white wings would evade thy dark-winged arrows;
They would evade and shirk thy venomed breath.
Along the garden-paths thy ghostly tread,
O death!
The sea-birds dart across the rocky narrows:
Their white wings would evade thy dark-winged arrows;
They would evade and shirk thy venomed breath.
All things have fear of thee. The very sun
Dies in the Western sea, its bright day done;
The light
Gives up to thee its glory, and the bloom
Of every summer passes into gloom
As surely as day passes into night.
Dies in the Western sea, its bright day done;
The light
Gives up to thee its glory, and the bloom
Of every summer passes into gloom
As surely as day passes into night.
Yet what if all things breathe, beyond all death,
Breathe with a sweeter drawing of the breath
Another air than ours?
What if a purpler tinge, a tenderer bloom,
Suffuses violets risen from their tomb;
Are there no fragrant ghosts of risen flowers?
Breathe with a sweeter drawing of the breath
Another air than ours?
What if a purpler tinge, a tenderer bloom,
Suffuses violets risen from their tomb;
Are there no fragrant ghosts of risen flowers?
196
What if within the starry night of sleep
Or death, all dead things win a rapture deep
And nobler than of day?
What if rose saith to rose, and heart to heart,
“Lo! death is weak. Why should we ever part?
Arise and live! Death wounds, but cannot slay.”
Or death, all dead things win a rapture deep
And nobler than of day?
What if rose saith to rose, and heart to heart,
“Lo! death is weak. Why should we ever part?
Arise and live! Death wounds, but cannot slay.”
1886.
| The Poetical Works of George Barlow | |