A Thought For A Lonely Death-Bed

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Inscribed To My Friend E. C.

If God compel thee to this destiny,
To die alone, -- with none beside thy bed
To ruffle round with sobs thy last word said,
And mark with tears the pulses ebb from thee, --
Then pray alone -- O Christ, come tenderly!
By thy forsaken Sonship, in the red
Drear wine-press, -- and the wilderness outspread, --
And the lone garden where Thine agony
Fell bloody from thy brow, -- by all of those
Permitted desolations, comfort mine!
No earthly friend being near me, interpose
No deathly angel 'twixt my face and Thine;
But stoop Thyself to gather my life's rose,
And smile away my mortal to Divine.