Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)/Dead Before Death
DEAD BEFORE DEATH.
SONNET.
Аh! changed and cold, how changed and very cold,With stiffened smiling lips and cold calm eyes:Changed, yet the same; much knowing, little wise;This was the promise of the days of old!Grown hard and stubborn in the ancient mould,Grown rigid in the sham of lifelong lies:We hoped for better things as years would rise,But it is over as a tale once told.All fallen the blossom that no fruitage bore,All lost the present and the future time,All lost, all lost, the lapse that went before:So lost till death shut-to the opened door,So lost from chime to everlasting chime,So cold and lost for ever evermore.