Tho Fate, for quiet prayer, might grant me all, <br />Little I ask beside the lasting grace <br />And benediction of thy dear embrace — <br />That hour of dream which holds my heart in thrall. <br />Tho many voices of enchantment call, <br />One mercy would I beg from Time and Space— <br />The final contemplation of thy face <br />Till Lethe sunder and the darkness fall. <br /> <br />And ah! may then thy face, a changeless light, <br />Companion me thro' aeons of the night! — <br />Filling that realm with marvel and desire <br />And making death not altogether sleep, <br />But rather as a gloom whose altars keep <br />A timeless vision and a ghostly fire.<br /><br />George Sterling<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/afterward-btb/
