Contents -Volume INDEX -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

“Since Cleopatra Died”

By Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823–1911)

“SINCE Cleopatra died!” Long years are past,

In Antony’s fancy, since the deed was done.

Love counts its epochs, not from sun to sun,

But by the heart-throb. Mercilessly fast

Time has swept onward since she looked her last

On life, a queen. For him the sands have run

Whole ages through their glass, and kings have won

And lost their empires o’er earth’s surface vast

Since Cleopatra died. Ah! Love and Pain

Make their own measure of all things that be.

No clock’s slow ticking marks their deathless strain;

The life they own is not the life we see;

Love’s single moment is eternity;

Eternity, a thought in Shakespeare’s brain.

1888.