Sonnets and Songs

<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</SPAN></span></p> <h3><SPAN name="XV" id="XV"></SPAN>XV</h3> <h3><i>Love and Death</i></h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">I can believe that my Beloved dies,<br/></span> <span class="i2">That all her virtue, all her youth shall fail,<br/></span> <span class="i2">And life, her rosy life, grow cold and pale,<br/></span> <span class="i0">To bloom again in braver Paradise.<br/></span> <span class="i0">I must believe that death shall close her eyes,<br/></span> <span class="i2">And hold her heart beyond a heavy veil,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Where silences surround her spirit frail<br/></span> <span class="i0">And waste the form where all my loving lies.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Ah, God! but no. And is my love so weak?<br/></span> <span class="i2">Her heart may pause, may falter and grow still,<br/></span> <span class="i0">But not her laugh, the color in her cheek&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i4">That may not fade; the catch that lifts her breath,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Sobbing against my heart. Essay your will&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i4">These are too dear to fill <i>your</i> grave, O Death!<br/></span></div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />