Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
V. Death and BereavementLove and Death
Margaret Deland (18571945)A
Love, before Death!
Else they content might be
With their short breath;
Aye, glad, when the pale sun
Showed restless day was done,
And endless Rest begun.
Death clasped their own,
And with a strange command
Hushed every moan;
Glad to have finished pain,
And labor wrought in vain,
Blurred by Sin’s deepening stain.
Bids self to flee—
“Live that I may rejoice,
Live on, for me!”
So, for Love’s cruel mind,
Men fear this Rest to find,
Nor know great Death is kind!