WHEN ON THE SHORE GRATES MY BARGE'S KEEL |
  Weariness, weariness, unending weariness, cease—
Break thou the heart thou canst not heal!
Bitterness, bitterness, undying bitterness, peace—
On shore bring to rest my barge's keel,
On that shadowy shore, we seek at life's release;
For thy soul, belovÈd, bears Death's seal.
Restlessness, restlessness, wandering restlessness haunts me;
Lacking thy smile, all life's brooklets congeal
Into one image emotional, fearful which daunts me—
Life's frozen image without an ideal.
Ceaselessly, ceaselessly, ceaselessly, mocking, life taunts me;
Gone all my former purpose and zeal.
Thou wert the pattern that ordered my hopes, my existence;
All that life meant to me, thou didst reveal—
And now thou art gone, all my nature is lacking subsistence—
Oh, let this soul from the body steal!
Then to the spectres, Plutonian, silent, ethereal,
Will my sad spirit for thine appeal,
Wandering onward, and onward through realms immaterial
Till at thy feet shall it joyously kneel—
Then must my weariness, weariness, weariness, cease;
Mended the heart, life could not heal—
Bitterness, bitterness, ended all bitterness, peace—
When on the shore grates my barge's keel.
January 25, 1911. |
|
  |
