The poetical works of John Godfrey Saxe :: :: University of Virginia Library

“O hateful Death!” my angry spirit cries,
“Who thus couldst take my darling from my sight,
Shrouding her beauty in sepulchral night;
O cruel! unto prayers and tears and sighs
Inexorable!” “Hush!” my soul replies;
“Be just, O stricken heart! the mortal strife
Which we call ‘death’ is birth to higher life.
Safe in the Father's Mansion in the skies,
She bides thy coming; only gone before
A little while, that at thy parting breath
Thou mayst endure a lighter pain of death,
And gladlier pass beyond this earthly shore;
For, with thy Laura calling from on high,
It cannot, sure, be very hard to die.”