Her Immortality

UPON a noon I pilgrimed through
        A pasture, mile by mile,
     Unto the place where I last saw
        My dead Love's living smile.

     And sorrowing I lay me down
        Upon the heated sod:
     It seemed as if my body pressed
        The very ground she trod.

     I lay, and thought; and in a trance
        She came and stood me by--
     The same, even to the marvellous ray
        That used to light her eye.

     "You draw me, and I come to you,
        My faithful one," she said,
     In voice that had the moving tone
        It bore in maidenhead.

     She said: "'Tis seven years since I died:
        Few now remember me;
     My husband clasps another bride;
        My children mothers she.

     My brethren, sisters, and my friends
        Care not to meet my sprite:
     Who prized me most I did not know
        Till I passed down from sight."

     I said: "My days are lonely here;
        I need thy smile alway:
     I'll use this night my ball or blade,
        And join thee ere the day."

     A tremor stirred her tender lips,
        Which parted to dissuade:
     "That cannot be, O friend," she cried;
        "Think, I am but a Shade!

     "A Shade but in its mindful ones
        Has immortality;
     By living, me you keep alive,
        By dying you slay me.

     "In you resides my single power
        Of sweet continuance here;
     On your fidelity I count
        Through many a coming year."

     --I started through me at her plight,
        So suddenly confessed:
     Dismissing late distaste for life,
        I craved its bleak unrest.

     "I will not die, my One of all!--
        To lengthen out thy days
     I'll guard me from minutest harms
        That may invest my ways!"

     She smiled and went. Since then she comes
        Oft when her birth-moon climbs,
     Or at the seasons' ingresses
        Or anniversary times;

     But grows my grief. When I surcease,
        Through whom alone lives she,
     Ceases my Love, her words, her ways,
        Never again to be!