Her Immortality

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!