Poems (Chandler)/What she said in her Tomb

by Louise Chandler Moulton

WHAT SHE SAID IN HER TOMB.

OW, at last, I lie asleep
 Where no morrows break,—
Why take heed to tread so soft?
 Fear you lest I wake?

Time there was when I was red
 As a rose in June
With the kisses of your lips,—
 Ah, they failed me soon.

Now they would not warm my mouth
 Though they fell like rain:
I am marble, dear; and they
 Marble cannot stain.

Ah, if you had loved me more,
 Been content to wait,
Some time you had found the key
 To Love's inmost gate.

Why, indeed, should any man
 Wait for Autumn days,
When the present Summer wooes
 To her rosy ways?

Only,—now I lie here dead;
 I shall not awake,
And you need not tread so soft
 For my deaf ears' sake.