I <br />To-day Death seems to me an infant child <br />Which her worn mother Life upon my knee <br />Has set to grow my friend and play with me; <br />If haply so my heart might be beguil'd <br />To find no terrors in a face so mild,— <br />If haply so my weary heart might be <br />Unto the newborn milky eyes of thee, <br />O Death, before resentment reconcil'd. <br />How long, O Death? And shall thy feet depart <br />Still a young child's with mine, or wilt thou stand <br />Fullgrown the helpful daughter of my heart, <br />What time with thee indeed I reach the strand <br />Of the pale wave which knows thee what thou art, <br />And drink it in the hollow of thy hand? <br />II <br />And thou, O Life, the lady of all bliss, <br />With whom, when our first heart beat full and fast, <br />I wandered till the haunts of men were pass'd, <br />And in fair places found all bowers amiss <br />Till only woods and waves might hear our kiss, <br />While to the winds all thought of Death we cast:— <br />Ah, Life! and must I have from thee at last <br />No smile to greet me and no babe but this? <br />Lo! Love, the child once ours; and Song, whose hair <br />Blew like a flame and blossomed like a wreath; <br />And Art, whose eyes were worlds by God found fair: <br />These o'er the book of Nature mixed their breath <br />With neck-twined arms, as oft we watched them there: <br />And did these die that thou mightst bear me Death?<br /><br />Dante Gabriel Rossetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnets-xcix-c-newborn-death/
