Pictures in Rhyme/Death and Dives
DEATH AND DIVES
DEATH
'Rise up, rise up, put off those robes,
And follow me into the night;
Leave thy gay feast, thy glittering globes;
Let fall the scales which mar thy sight;
Throw thy half-tasted winecup down—
Thou hast a deeper draught to drink
When wrapped within my sable gown,
Forgetting self, forget to think.
Obey, obey!
I have no time to pause, to stay;
We must be far away
Ere day.'
DIVES
'What! go with thee, thou fearful guest;
Be wrapped upon thy fatal breast,
To sleep forgetting and forgot?
Leave this my home of life and light,
To pass with thee across the night,
DEATH
'Obey, obey!
I have no time to pause, to stay;
We must be far away
Ere day.'
DIVES
'I scarcely yet begin to live
After the years of gathering toil,
Needing no longer now to strive,
My cellars filled with wine and oil.
My honey-bees do congregate
Near barns which groan beneath the weight
Of corn, and shrivelled fruit, in rows,
Hangs rafter-strung; whilst daily grows
More loud the lowing in my stalls.
Atlanta, too, this day has foaled.
These jars of silver, bowls of gold,
These purple robes of sea-born dye,
Yon gaudy birds which swing and cry
In unknown, brazen tongues.Yon slaves,
Spice-scented, from whose viols falls
Soft music on my painted walls,
Passion and sleep's melodious waves.
Through heat, through cold, o'er distant seas,
Now fanned, now baffled by the breeze,
I gathered these.
And then thou askest me,
Leaving my glittering halls, to pass with thee
From men, from light,
Into the voiceless night.'
Death smiled upon him, and then said,
As his lips gently touched his head:
'Behold! how much I give to thee
"Behold how much I give to thee
In place of all thou leav'st for me."