I. <br /> <br />UNTIL her death!' the words read strange yet real, <br />Like things afar off suddenly brought near:-- <br />Will it be slow or speedy, full of fear, <br />Or calm as a spent day of peace ideal? <br />II. <br /> <br />Will her brown locks lie white on coffin pillow? <br />Will these her eyes, that sometime were called sweet, <br />Close, after years of dried-up tears, or meet <br />Death's dust in midst of weeping? And that billow,-- <br /> <br />III. <br /> <br />Her restless heart,--will it be stopped, still heaving? <br />Or softly ebb 'neath age's placid breath? <br />Will it be lonely, this mysterious death, <br />Fit close unto her solitary living,-- <br /> <br />IV. <br /> <br />A turning of her face to the wall, nought spoken, <br />Exchanging this world's light for heaven's;--or will <br />She part in pain, from warm love to the chill <br />Unknown, pursued with cries of hearts half-broken? <br /> <br />V. <br /> <br />With fond lips felt through the blind mists of dying, <br />And close arms clung to in the struggle vain;-- <br />Or, these all past, will death to her be gain, <br />Unto her life's long question God's replying? <br /> <br />VI. <br /> <br />No more. Within his hand, divine as tender, <br />He holds the mystic measure of her days; <br />And be they few or many, His the praise,-- <br />In life or death her Keeper and Defender. <br /> <br />VII. <br /> <br />Then, come He soon or late, she will not fear Him; <br />Be her end lone or loveful, she'll not grieve; <br />For He whom she believed in--doth believe-- <br />Will call her from the dust, and she will hear Him.<br /><br />Dinah Maria Mulock Craik<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/until-her-death/
