 | Poetical Works of Lionel Johnson |  |
THE SILENT
To Ralph Shirley
Sing to me, sing to me,
Voices of all my dead!
From under earth and sea
Send music up, and shed
Melody and memory
Around my dying head.
Voices of all my dead!
From under earth and sea
Send music up, and shed
Melody and memory
Around my dying head.
Once let me hear, ere death,
Your voices, O my friends!
Else will your welcoming breath
Make no true heart's amends
For my lone life beneath
Sad skies: once, ere life ends,
Your voices, O my friends!
Else will your welcoming breath
Make no true heart's amends
For my lone life beneath
Sad skies: once, ere life ends,
240
Let Death refine mine ears
To catch your thin, far airs:
Breathe from your shadowy spheres
One sigh, to soothe my cares;
One thought, ere death appears,
Ere my worn spirit shares
To catch your thin, far airs:
Breathe from your shadowy spheres
One sigh, to soothe my cares;
One thought, ere death appears,
Ere my worn spirit shares
Your fellowship of gloom.
To warn me of your black,
Chill pathway of the tomb,
Speak from that bitter track:
To mind me of their bloom,
From days of old come back!
To warn me of your black,
Chill pathway of the tomb,
Speak from that bitter track:
To mind me of their bloom,
From days of old come back!
1888.
| Poetical Works of Lionel Johnson | |