•                 IF I should die to-night,
    My friends would look upon my quiet face
    Before they laid it in its resting-place,
    And deem that death had left it almost fair;
    And, laying snow-white flowers against my hair,
    Would smooth it down with tearful tenderness,
    And fold my hands with lingering caress—
    Poor hands, so empty and so cold to...

  • How little recks it where men lie,
      When once the moment’s past
    In which the dim and glazing eye
      Has looked on earth its last,—
    Whether beneath the sculptured urn
      The coffined form shall rest,
    Or in its nakedness return
      Back to its mother’s breast!

    Death is a common friend or foe,
      As different men may hold,...

  • As if the Sea should part

    And show a further Sea —

    And that — a further — and the Three

    But a presumption be —


    Of Periods of Seas —

    Unvisited of Shores —

    Themselves the Verge of Seas to be —

    Eternity — is Those —

  • I should have been too glad, I see —

    Too lifted — for the scant degree

    Of Life's penurious Round —

    My little Circuit would have shamed

    This new Circumference — have blamed —

    The homelier time behind.


    I should have been too saved — I see —

    Too rescued — Fear too dim to me

    ...

  • I should not dare to be so sad

    So many Years again —

    A Load is first impossible

    When we have put it down —


    The Superhuman then withdraws

    And we who never saw

    The Giant at the other side

    Begin to perish now.

  • I should not dare to leave my friend,

    Because — because if he should die

    While I was gone — and I — too late —

    Should reach the Heart that wanted me —


    If I should disappoint the eyes

    That hunted — hunted so — to see —

    And could not bear to shut until

    They "noticed" me — they noticed me...

  • If I should cease to bring a Rose

    Upon a festal day,

    'Twill be because beyond the Rose

    I have been called away —

    If I should cease to take the names

    My buds commemorate —

    'Twill be because Death's finger

    Claps my murmuring lip!

  • If I should die,

    And you should live —

    And time should gurgle on —

    And morn should beam —

    And noon should burn —

    As it has usual done —

    If Birds should build as early

    And Bees as bustling go —

    One might depart at option

    From enterprise below!

    'Tis sweet to...

  • Lest they should come — is all my fear

    When sweet incarcerated here

  • Should you but fail at — Sea —

    In sight of me —

    Or doomed lie —

    Next Sun — to die —

    Or rap — at Paradise — unheard

    I'd harass God

    Until he let you in!