Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Caroline Southey. 17871854596. To Death
COME not in terrors clad, to claim | |
An unresisting prey: | |
Come like an evening shadow, Death! | |
So stealthily, so silently! | |
And shut mine eyes, and steal my breath; | 5 |
Then willingly, O willingly, | |
With thee I’ll go away! | |
What need to clutch with iron grasp | |
What gentlest touch may take? | |
What need with aspect dark to scare, | 10 |
So awfully, so terribly, | |
The weary soul would hardly care, | |
Call’d quietly, call’d tenderly, | |
From thy dread power to break? | |
‘Tis not as when thou markest out | 15 |
The young, the blest, the gay, | |
The loved, the loving—they who dream | |
So happily, so hopefully; | |
Then harsh thy kindest call may seem, | |
And shrinkingly, reluctantly, | 20 |
The summon’d may obey. | |
But I have drunk enough of life— | |
The cup assign’d to me | |
Dash’d with a little sweet at best, | |
So scantily, so scantily— | 25 |
To know full well that all the rest | |
More bitterly, more bitterly, | |
Drugg’d to the last will be. | |
And I may live to pain some heart | |
That kindly cares for me: | 30 |
To pain, but not to bless. O Death! | |
Come quietly—come lovingly— | |
And shut mine eyes, and steal my breath; | |
Then willingly, O willingly, | |
I’ll go away with thee! | 35 |