When I was young, my lover stole
One of my ringlets fair:
I wept--'Ah no! Those always part,
Who having once changed heart for heart,
Change also locks of hair.
'And wonder-opened eyes have seen
The spirits of the dead,
Gather like motes in silent bands
Round hair once reft by tender hands
From some now shrouded head.
'If'---- Here he closed my quivering mouth,
And where the curl had lain,
Laid payment rich for what he stole:--
Could I to one hour crush life's whole,
I'd live that hour again!
My golden curls are silvering o'er--
Who heeds? The seas roll wide;
When one I know their bounds shall pass,
There'll be no tresses--save long grass--
For _his_ hands to divide;
While I shall lie, low, deep, a-cold,
And never hear him tread:
Whether he weep, or sigh, or moan,
I shall be passive as a stone,
He living, and I--dead!
And then he will rise up and go,
With slow steps, looking back,
Still--going: leaving me to keep
My frozen and eternal sleep,
Beneath the earth so black.
Pale brow--oft leant against his brow:
Dear hand--where his lips lay;
Dim eyes, that knew not they were fair,
Till his praise made them half they were--
Must all these pass away?
Must nought of mine be left for him
Save the poor curl he stole?
Round which this wildly-loving _me_
Will float unseen continually,
A disembodied soul.
A soul! Glad thought--that lightning-like
Leaps from this cloud of doom:
If, living, all its load of clay
Keeps not my spirit from him away,
Thou canst not, cruel tomb!
The moment that these earth-chains burst,
Like an enfranchised dove,
O'er seas and lands to him I fly,
Whom only, whether I live or die,
I loved, love, and shall love.
I'll wreathe around him--he shall breathe
My life instead of air;
In glowing sunbeams o'er his head
My visionary hands I'll spread,
And kiss his forehead fair.
I'll stand, an angel bold and strong,
Between his soul and sin;
If Grief lie stone-like on his heart,
I'll beat its marble doors apart,
To let Peace enter in.
He never more shall part from me,
Nor I from him abide;
Let these poor limbs in earth find rest!
I'll live like Love within his breast,
Rejoicing that I died.