Love and DeathFirst printed in 1830.What time the mighty moon was gathering light[1]Love paced the thymy plots of Paradise,And all about him roll’d his lustrous eyes;When, turning round a cassia, full in viewDeath, walking all alone beneath a yew,And talking to himself, first met his sight:“You must begone,” said Death, “these walks are mine”.Love wept and spread his sheeny vans[2]for flight;Yet ere he parted said, “This hour is thine;Thou art the shadow of life, and as the treeStands in the sun and shadows all beneath,So in the light of great eternityLife eminent creates the shade of death;The shadow passeth when the tree shall fall,But I shall reign for ever over all”.[3][1]The expression is Virgil’s,Georg., i., 427: “Luna revertentes cum primumcolligit ignes”.[2]Vans used also for “wings” by Milton,Paradise Lost, ii., 927-8:—His sail-broadvansHe spreads for flight.So also Tasso,Ger. Lib., ix., 60: “Indi spiega al gran volo ivanniaurati”.[3]Cf. Lockley Hall Sixty Years After: “Love will conquer at the last”.
First printed in 1830.
What time the mighty moon was gathering light[1]Love paced the thymy plots of Paradise,And all about him roll’d his lustrous eyes;When, turning round a cassia, full in viewDeath, walking all alone beneath a yew,And talking to himself, first met his sight:“You must begone,” said Death, “these walks are mine”.Love wept and spread his sheeny vans[2]for flight;Yet ere he parted said, “This hour is thine;Thou art the shadow of life, and as the treeStands in the sun and shadows all beneath,So in the light of great eternityLife eminent creates the shade of death;The shadow passeth when the tree shall fall,But I shall reign for ever over all”.[3]
[1]The expression is Virgil’s,Georg., i., 427: “Luna revertentes cum primumcolligit ignes”.
[2]Vans used also for “wings” by Milton,Paradise Lost, ii., 927-8:—His sail-broadvansHe spreads for flight.So also Tasso,Ger. Lib., ix., 60: “Indi spiega al gran volo ivanniaurati”.
[3]Cf. Lockley Hall Sixty Years After: “Love will conquer at the last”.