Poems (Douglas)/The Suicide's Farewell

by Sarah Parker Douglas

The Suicide's Farewell.

"World, farewell! false, false I find thee;
 Truth, what art thou but a name?
Nought remains on earth to bind me—
 Life, alas! is but a dream!
Joys there were, but they are faded
 Like the flower on which I tread,
When autumnal winds have laid it
 On my pathway, chill'd and dead.

"Life, adieu! here is a potion
 Gives oblivion to thy woes,
Stills the bosom's wild emotion,
 Seals the eyelids in repose.
Coward heart! why flutter, pleading
 For a life you loathe and dread?
Trampled on, and wrong'd, and bleeding,
 Why not seek death's painless bed?

"Fairest thou to go uncalled?
 Shrink'st thou from death's awful gloom?
Wherefore shudder now, appalled
 At the world beyond the tomb?
Look not there! such thoughts unnerve thee,
 Drive thee 'frighted from the brink;
Only think how he hath served thee,
 And repaid thy love. Oh! think,

"How he hath so basely left thee,
 When thy love was woo'd and won,
And of every joy bereft thee,
 When each pulse was his alone;
Think on what remorse he'll suffer—
 Feelings to his false heart strange:
Why, then, life not freely offer
 At the shrine of that revenge?

"Life! I've drained thy cup of sadness,
 Till my stagg'ring senses stood
On the very verge of madness,
 Scarce by reason's voice subdued.
Now, e'en now, a hydra fever
 Burns and reels my tortured brain;
But this cup hath power to sever
 Life's now loath'd and galling chain!

"World, farewell! the draught is taken,
 Now I lay me down to sleep,
Never more on earth to waken
 From a slumber still and deep.
With a faithless world behind me,
 And a world unknown before;
Death! to thee I have resigned me;
 Life! adieu—adieu once more!"

Victim of a dire delusion!
 And did conscience vainly plead?
Didst thou deem its voice intrusion?
 'Twas to drive thee from the deed!
Oh! hadst thou from the temptation
 Flown for refuge and for rest
To the rock of Christ's salvation,
 Shelter strong for the distress'd!