 | [Poems by Hovey in] Last songs from Vagabondia |  |
“AT LAST, O DEATH”
A FRAGMENT
At last, O death!Not with the sick-room fever and weary heart
And slow subsidence of diminished breath—
But strong and free
With the great tumult of the living sea.
Behold, I have loved.
And though I wept for the long sundering,
I did not fear thee, Death, nor then nor now.
I girded up my loins and sought my kind,
And did a man's work in a world of men,
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Now come, then, in the shape I love the best.
In the salt, sturdy wrestling of the sea,
I give thee welcome.
| [Poems by Hovey in] Last songs from Vagabondia | |