"Ay, she pities you-- Loves you, indeed; but there is One she loves With holier passion, and with more entire And gladder self-surrender. She will go-- You know that she will go--and go with joy; And you begin to see how poor and mean, When placed beside her joy, are all your gifts, And all that you have won by them. "Poor man! Weeping again! Well, if it comfort you, Rain your salt tears upon her waxen hands, And kiss them dry at leisure! Press her lips, Hot with the hectic! Lay your cold, wet cheek Against the burning scarlet of her own: Only remember that she is not yours, And that your paroxysms of grief and tears Are painful to her." Ah! to wait for death! To see one's idol with the signature Of the Destroyer stamped upon her brow. And know that she is doomed, beyond all hope; To watch her while she fades; to see the form That once was Beauty's own become a corpse In all but breathing, and to meet her eyes A hundred times a day--while the heart bleeds-- With smiles of smooth dissembling, and with words Cheerful as morning, and to do all this Through weeks and weary months, till one half longs To see the spell dissolved, and feel the worst That death can do: can there be misery Sadder than this? My time I passed alone, And at the bedside of my dying wife. She talked of death as children talk of sleep, When--a forgetful blank--it lies between Their glad impatience and a holiday. The morrow--ah! the morrow! That was name For hope all realized, for work all done, For pain all passed, for life and strength renewed. For fruitage of endeavor, for repose, For heaven! What would the morrow bring to me? The morrow--ah! the morrow! It was blank-- Nay, blank and black with gloom of clouds and night Never before had I so realized My helplessness. I could not find relief In love or labor. I could only sit, And gaze against a wall, without the power To pierce or climb. My pride of life was gone. My spirit broken, and my strife with God Was finished. If I could not look before, I dare not look above; and so, whene'er I could forget the present, I went back Upon the past.