05.05.2012, 17:01
The Eternal Parting
I STAND alone with thee on Life's dark verge
And scan with fearful gaze the gulfs beyond,
Whilst thou with futile arms, lamenting, fond,
Dost hold me from the deeps that would submerge
Thy lover in their dim eternal surge -
The deeps that reck not of love's holy bond
Nor but with awful silence e'er respond
To cries that loss from human hearts doth urge.
Yet grieve thou not, Beloved! Mortal sight
Serves but the uses of this mortal state:
When we would look on what beyond it lies
We but behold a vast and vacant night,
That doth from our defect illusive rise
To hide a sphere of joy immaculate.
I STAND alone with thee on Life's dark verge
And scan with fearful gaze the gulfs beyond,
Whilst thou with futile arms, lamenting, fond,
Dost hold me from the deeps that would submerge
Thy lover in their dim eternal surge -
The deeps that reck not of love's holy bond
Nor but with awful silence e'er respond
To cries that loss from human hearts doth urge.
Yet grieve thou not, Beloved! Mortal sight
Serves but the uses of this mortal state:
When we would look on what beyond it lies
We but behold a vast and vacant night,
That doth from our defect illusive rise
To hide a sphere of joy immaculate.