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DEAD BEFORE DEATH.
DEAD BEFORE DEATH.
SONNET.
AH! 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.
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.
TWILIGHT NIGHT.
I.
WE met, hand to hand,
We clasped hands close and fast,
As close as oak and ivy stand;
But it is past:
Come day, come night, day comes at last.
We clasped hands close and fast,
As close as oak and ivy stand;
But it is past:
Come day, come night, day comes at last.
We loosed hand from hand,
We parted face from face;
We parted face from face;
