Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Frank T. Marzials b. 1840

Death As the Teacher of Love-Lore

’T WAS in mid autumn, and the woods were still.

A brooding mist from out the marshlands lay

Like age’s clammy hand upon the day,

Soddening it;—and the night rose dank and chill.

I watched the sere leaves falling, falling, till

Old thoughts, old hopes, seemed fluttering too away,

And then I sighed to think how life’s decay,

And change, and time’s mischances, Love might kill.

Sudden a shadowy horseman, at full speed

Spurring a pale horse, passed me swiftly by,

And mocking shrieked, “Thy love is dead indeed,

Haste to the burial!”—With a bitter cry

I swooned, and wake to wonder at my creed,

Learning from Death that Love can never die.