Classic Poem

I saw a damsel in a sombre room,
Laid low in beds of purple violet,
And pale, sweet roses scenting all the gloom;
And then I thought, This is a gray sunset
Of days of loving life. Shall he who stands
Beside her bier, in sorrow for his love,
Be first in Heaven to clasp her gentle hands
To bow with her before the Lord above?

If love can die, let my heart be as cold
As Galatea's was before the words
Of the warm sculptor drew it from the mould
And made her hear the sound of singing birds;
Love's sunshine and love's shadows are they all
Like April sun and shadow on the earth?
If love can die at sight of funeral-pall,
Would I had strangled it in its sad birth!

I know that the sweet spring will surely go
And leave no trace, except a blossom dry;
I know that life will pass as passes snow
When March winds blow and river-floods are high;
I know that all the maples on the hill
That fire the air with flame to ashes burn;
I know that all the singing birds that fill
The air with song to silent dust will turn.

Oh! love, my love, can it, then, ever be
That thou or I may gaze upon love's death?
That thou shalt some day sad and silently
Look on me dumb and cold and without breath?

Or shall I see thee lying white and wan,
Like yonder damsel in the flower-bed,
And only say, " My lady sweet has gone;
She's lost to me; she's dead — what meaneth " dead"? "

If love can die, then I will no more look
Into thy eyes, and see thy pure thoughts there,
Nor will I read in any poet's book
Of all the things that poets make so fair.
If love can die, the poet's art is vain,
And thy blue eyes might well be blossoms blue,
And thy soft tears be only senseless rain,
If love can die, like flowers and soulless dew.

I care not for thy smile, if love can die:
If I must leave thee, let me leave thee now.
Shall I not know thee, if in Heaven high
I enter and before the Holy bow?
Shalt thou not know me when before the throne
Thou, white-robed one, shalt enter into light?
I cannot think the Lord of Love has sown
His precious seed to make but one day bright.

Would I were dead, if death could be the end
Of all the loving that makes life so fair!
If love can die, I pray the sun may send
An arrow through my head, that death may tear
Away my soul, and make me soon forget
The fair, sweet hope of love's eternal day,
Which yet might die like purple violet
Strewn on the robe of her that passed away!
Ah! love, my love, when I look in thy eyes,
And hear thy voice, like softened homely bells,
Coming to one who long has sent up sighs
From foreign lands to be where his love dwells,
" The earth may crumble, but our love and we
Shall live forever. This is true! " I cry.
My heart lifts up itself in ecstasy.
" Life were not life if our great love could die. "