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16

IF I WERE DEAD.

If I were dead,
Or fled
To some far shore unknown,
And you were left
Bereft,
To wander here alone,—
How long would you
Be true
To memory of mine?
How soon Love's debt
Forget,
And seek another shrine?
What fairer eyes
Would rise
Like day-stars on your soul?
And whose sweet speech
Would teach
Delight to follow dole?
17

What charm make brief
Your grief?
What tender ministry
Heal with soft art
The heart
That ached for loss of me?
It would be so,
I know;—
Men's love is like to this:
They hold the near
Most dear,
The absent scarcely miss.
Some other face
Will grace
Your home when I have flown,
And claim as bliss
The kiss
I prized as mine alone.
Oh, love and pain!
In vain
We long for utter truth.
It is at best
A jest,
A day-dream of our youth;
18

And many wives
Whose lives
Have lacked no duteous grace,
Are, ere they die,
Thrown by
For a more youthful face.
Ah, well she sleeps
Who keeps
Her love till life's last eve;
If then he range
Or change,
Ghosts do not blush, nor grieve.
But stay awhile
And smile,
And let me fancy yet
That Time's cold breath
Nor Death
Could make you quite forget!
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