Wilt thou go with me, sweet maid, <br />Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me <br />Through the valley-depths of shade, <br />Of night and dark obscurity; <br />Where the path has lost its way, <br />Where the sun forgets the day, <br />Where there's nor life nor light to see, <br />Sweet maiden, wilt thou go with me! <br /> <br />Where stones will turn to flooding streams, <br />Where plains will rise like ocean waves, <br />Where life will fade like visioned dreams <br />And mountains darken into caves, <br />Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me <br />Through this sad non-identity, <br />Where parents live and are forgot, <br />And sisters live and know us not! <br /> <br />Say, maiden; wilt thou go with me <br />In this strange death of life to be, <br />To live in death and be the same, <br />Without this life or home or name, <br />At once to be and not to be - <br />That was and is not -yet to see <br />Things pass like shadows, and the sky <br />Above, below, around us lie?<br /><br />John Clare<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-invite-to-eternity/
