Elizabeth Stoddard

1823-1902

 

Last Lines of Elizabeth Stoddard

A grief -- your and my Universe!Ah! I do not charm you now!All their country should -- a grave!Although I'm sure I have forgot the pain!And Clara, my dear wife, her rightful place.And Dolores goes home for chocolate.And for mine!And I forget, forget the drift of time.And later heroes strike Achilles' lyre!And roses blow! I choose to rest.And silent die -- as wolves should die!And strike the Christmas chime.As bright and clear!Back to the House of Youth!Behind my daily mask.Believing it their own, and it will serve.But Amine in his sheaf will not be bound.Deep as the shadow of Rome!Do thou with anthems make it ring!For I am a man of steadfast mind.Had proved The Colonel's Shield.Here, take them -- Adieu!How Autumn answers me.How could the spirit flee?I am but a priest!If any other lot were mine.In one word, Sweet, sweetest of all words -- Wife!Its mystery all its own, and it will last.My future bring, it will be -- you!My little primrose lift its head!My woman's life is done.Now she knows her lover's fate!Once more repeating, Why, why, why?Row away!Sleep, child, and the whitest of dreams to thee.That end in Nothing and the Grave!That flies when flies the spring!That I, the lost, and Nature may be one.That Nature is eternal for man's sake?That waiteth for me.The answer everywhere will be, The Tzar.The dead that do not die!The loss of beauty is not always loss!The queen may have seen!The secret each alone must learn.These phantoms by this ancient loom.To solve for me, I think, this mystery.To-morrow will find me dead!Until I fade into the fading plain.Vive la compagnie!Wait for a future which contains no past?What can you ask for more?With all the art I have, -- in black and white!Would float the memory of my dream!