SAD WISDOM: Four Years Old.
"Well, but some time I will be dead;
Then you will love me, too!"
Ah! mouth so wise for mouth so red,
I wonder how you knew.
(Closer, closer, little brown head—
Not long can I keep you!)
Then you will love me, too!"
Ah! mouth so wise for mouth so red,
I wonder how you knew.
(Closer, closer, little brown head—
Not long can I keep you!)
Here, take this one poor bud to hold,
Take this long kiss and last;
Love cannot loosen one fixed fold
Of the shroud that holds you fast—
Never, never; oh, cold, so cold!
All that was sweet is past.
Take this long kiss and last;
Love cannot loosen one fixed fold
Of the shroud that holds you fast—
Never, never; oh, cold, so cold!
All that was sweet is past.
Oh, tears, and tears, and foolish tears,
Dropped on a grave somewhere! . . .
Does not the child laugh in my ears
What time I feign despair?
Whisper, whisper—I know he hears;
Yet this is hard to bear.
Dropped on a grave somewhere! . . .
Does not the child laugh in my ears
What time I feign despair?
Whisper, whisper—I know he hears;
Yet this is hard to bear.
O world, with your wet face above
One veil of dust, thick-drawn!
O weird voice of the hapless dove,
Broken for something gone!—
Tell me, tell me, when will we love
The thing the sun shines on?
One veil of dust, thick-drawn!
O weird voice of the hapless dove,
Broken for something gone!—
Tell me, tell me, when will we love
The thing the sun shines on?