Upon a noon I pilgrimed through A pasture, mile by mile, Unto the place where I last saw My dead Love's living smile.
And sorrowing I lay me down Upon the heated sod:
It seemed as if my body pressed The very ground she trod.
I lay, and thought; and in a trance She came and stood me by--The same, even to the marvellous ray That used to light her eye.
"You draw me, and I come to you, My faithful one," she said, In voice that had the moving tone It bore ere breath had fled.
She said: "'Tis seven years since I died:
Few now remember me;
My husband clasps another bride;
My children's love has she.
"My brethren, sisters, and my friends Care not to meet my sprite:
Who prized me most I did not know Till I passed down from sight."I said: "My days are lonely here;
I need thy smile alway:
I'll use this night my ball or blade, And join thee ere the day."A tremor stirred her tender lips, Which parted to dissuade:
"That cannot be, O friend," she cried;
"Think, I am but a Shade!
"A Shade but in its mindful ones Has immortality;By living, me you keep alive, By dying you slay me.
"In you resides my single power Of sweet continuance here;On your fidelity I count Through many a coming year."- I started through me at her plight, So suddenly confessed:
Dismissing late distaste for life, I craved its bleak unrest.
"I will not die, my One of all! -
To lengthen out thy days I'll guard me from minutest harms That may invest my ways!"She smiled and went.Since then she comes Oft when her birth-moon climbs, Or at the seasons' ingresses Or anniversary times;But grows my grief.When I surcease, Through whom alone lives she, Ceases my Love, her words, her ways, Never again to be!
