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James Russell Lowell - A Requiem
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Ay, pale and silent maiden,
  Cold as thou liest there,
Thine was the sunniest nature
  That ever drew the air;
The wildest and most wayward,
  And yet so gently kind,
Thou seemedst but to body
  A breath of summer wind.

Into the eternal shadow
  That girds our life around,
Into the infinite silence
  Wherewith Death`s shore is bound,
Thou hast gone forth, beloved!
  And I were mean to weep,
That thou hast left Life`s shallows
  And dost possess the Deep.

Thou liest low and silent,
  Thy heart is cold and still.
Thine eyes are shut forever,
  And Death hath had his will;
He loved and would have taken;
  I loved and would have kept.
We strove,--and he was stronger,
  And I have never wept.

Let him possess thy body,
  Thy soul is still with me,
More sunny and more gladsome
  Than it was wont to be:
Thy body was a fetter
  That bound me to the flesh,
Thank God that it is broken,
  And now I live afresh!

Now I can see thee clearly;
  The dusky cloud of clay,
That hid thy starry spirit,
  Is rent and blown away:
To earth I give thy body,
  Thy spirit to the sky,
I saw its bright wings growing,
  And knew that thou must fly.

Now I can love thee truly,
  For nothing comes between
The senses and the spirit,
  The seen and the unseen;
Lifts the eternal shadow,
  The silence bursts apart,
And the soul`s boundless future
  Is present in my heart.
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