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On her forehead of stone they laid it fair;

Over her eyes that gazed too much
They drew the lids with a gentle touch;

With a tender touch they closed up well The sweet thin lips that had secrets to tell;

About her brows and beautiful face They tied her veil and her marriage lace,

And drew on her white feet her white silk shoes

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He and she; still she did not move To any one passionate whisper of love.

Then he said: "Cold lips and breasts without breath,

Is there no voice, no language of death?

"Dumb to the ear and still to the sense, But to heart and to soul distinct, intense? What was the secret of dying, dear? now; I will listen with soul, not ear;

66 See

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"Did life roll back its records, dear, Which were the whitest no eye could And show, as they say it does, past

choose

And over her bosom they crossed her hands.

"Come away!" they said; "God understands."

things clear?

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66

And there was silence, and nothing there O perfect dead! O dead most dear,
But silence, and scents of eglantere,
I hold the breath of my soul to hear!

And jasmine, and roses, and rosemary;
And they said, "As a lady should lie,

lies she."

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With a shudder, to glance at its stillness and gloom.

But he who loved her too well to dread

"I listen as deep as to horrible hell, As high as to heaven, and you do not tell.

"There must be pleasure in dying, sweet, To make you so placid from head to feet!

"I would tell you, darling, if I were dead, And 't were your hot tears upon my brow shed;

The sweet, the stately, the beautiful "I would say, though the Angel of Death

dead,

He lit his lamp and took the key
And turned it, —alone again—he and she.

He and she; but she would not speak, Though he kissed, in the old place, the quiet cheek.

He and she; yet she would not smile, Though he called her the name she loved erewhile.

had laid

His sword on my lips to keep it unsaid.

"You should not ask vainly, with streaming eyes, Which of all deaths was the chiefest surprise,

"The very strangest and suddenest thing Of all the surprises that dying must bring."

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"The utmost wonder is this, - I hear

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That treasure of his treasury,
A mind that loved him; let it lie!
Let the shard be earth's once more,
Since the gold shines in his store!
Allah glorious! Allah good!
Now thy world is understood;
Now the long, long wonder ends;
Yet ye weep, my erring friends,

And see you, and love you, and kiss While the man whom ye call dead,

you, dear;

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In unspoken bliss, instead,
Lives and loves you; lost, 't is true,
But in the light ye cannot see
By such light as shines for you;
Of unfulfilled felicity,

In enlarging paradise,

Lives a life that never dies.

Farewell, friends! Yet not farewell;
Where I am, ye, too, shall dwell.
I am gone before your face,

A moment's time, a little space.
When ye come where I have stepped,
Ye will wonder why ye wept;
Ye will know, by wise love taught,
That here is all, and there is naught.
Weep awhile, if ye are fain, —
Sunshine still must follow rain;
Only not at death, —for death,
Now I know, is that first breath
Which our souls draw when we enter
Life, which is of all life centre.

Be ye certain all seems love,
Viewed from Allah's throne above;
Be ye stout of heart, and come
Bravely onward to your home!
La Allah illa Allah! yea!

Thou love divine! Thou love alway!

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We sat apart, but still were near
As souls may draw unto each other

It was wrought for the eye of God, and Who seek through stronger love to God

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A nobler love to brother.

How deep the common silence was;

How pure and sweet those woman faces, Which patience, gentleness, and peace Had stamped with heavenly graces.

Nonoise of prayer came through the hush, No praise sang through the portals lowly,

Save merry bird-songs from without,
And even those seemed holy.

Then daily toil was glorified,

And love was something rarer, finer; The whole earth, sanctified througk Christ,

And human life, diviner.

And when at length, by lips of age,
The silent hour was fitly broken,
Our hearts found echo in the words
From wise experience spoken.

Then at the elder's clasp of hand

We rose and met beneath the portal; Some earthly dust our lives had lost, And something gained immortal.

Since then, when sermon, psalm, and rite, And solemn organ's tuneful pealing,

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Be narrow! -as the bud, the flame, the dart;

Think what God doth for man; so mayst But narrow in thy aim, not at thy heart.

thou know

How godlike service is, and serve also.

DESPAIR.

The shadow of a slave who turns his back On the light, and cries, "The universe is black!"

WEALTH.

Cornelia's jewels; blind old Milton's thought;

Job's patience; and the lesson Lazarus taught.

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"No glimmer of light (I sighed) appears; I SAW a man, by some accounted wise, The Moslem's Fate and the Buddhist's For some things said and done before

fears

their eyes,

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