 | Madrigals, songs and sonnets |  |
136
SONG FOR CORNELIA OVER MARCELLO.
Hush! the sad sound of your weeping
Will awake my child from sleeping!
Pluck me no more roses,
On the white brow lay a lily;—
Which is flesh and which is flower?
For both are chilly.
Leave me here alone an hour,
That I may deck my dear child's corse with posies.
Will awake my child from sleeping!
Pluck me no more roses,
On the white brow lay a lily;—
Which is flesh and which is flower?
For both are chilly.
Leave me here alone an hour,
That I may deck my dear child's corse with posies.
Yet leave me not, for thoughts affright me!
Have you no other torch to light me,
But this of funeral flaring?
Be silent! for we sleep together.
He is sleeping, I am dead;
My hair is white with wintry weather
And frosty death, but his bright head
Its life of curls is wearing!
Have you no other torch to light me,
But this of funeral flaring?
Be silent! for we sleep together.
137
My hair is white with wintry weather
And frosty death, but his bright head
Its life of curls is wearing!
Forgive me, friends! my old brain wanders,
And mine is not the life Death squanders,—
My boy is dead before me;
Yet leave me face to face with Death,
For I must whisper in his ear
Some last maternal secrets, that I fear
May perish with my faltering breath:
And when I lie on my last bed,
I fain would see my dear boy's head
Smile and bend o'er me!
And mine is not the life Death squanders,—
My boy is dead before me;
Yet leave me face to face with Death,
For I must whisper in his ear
Some last maternal secrets, that I fear
May perish with my faltering breath:
And when I lie on my last bed,
I fain would see my dear boy's head
Smile and bend o'er me!
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