Love and Death

Alas! that men must see Love, before Death! Else they content might be With their short breath; Aye, glad, when the pale sun Showed restless Day was done, And endless Rest begun. Glad, when with strong, cool hand Death clasped their own, And with a strange command Hushed every moan; Glad to have finished pain, And labor wrought in vain, Blurred by Sin’s deepening stain. But Love’s insistent voice Bids Self to flee— “Live that I may rejoice, Live on, for me!” So, for Love’s cruel mind, Men fear this Rest to find, Nor know great Death is kind!

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Alas! that men must see Love, before Death! Else they content might be With their short breath; Aye, glad, when the pale sun Showed restless day was done, And endless Rest begun. Glad, when with strong, cool hand Death clasped their own, And with a strange command Hushed every...

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