Dear, I lie dying, and thou dost not know--
Thou whom of all the world I love the best,
And wilt not know until I lie at rest,
With lips forever closed and lids dropped low.
O Love, O Love, I cannot leave thee so!
Cannot, still undivined, still unexpressed,
Unheeding to the last my heart’s behest,
Dumb into the eternal silence go!
What reck I in this moment of disgrace?
Albeit the whole world hear what my heart saith,
I cry aloud to thee across all space,
To thee--to thee--I call with my last breath!
O Love, lean forth from out thy dwelling-place!
Listen, and learn I loved thee, Love, till death.
[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON