A Paean

A Paean

I

How shall the burial rite be read?

The Solemn song be sung?

The requiem for the loveliest dead,

That ever died so young?

II

Her friends are gazing on her,

And on her gaudy bier,

And weep!- oh! To dishonor

Dead beauty with a tear!

III

They loved her for her wealth –

And they hated her for her pride –

But she grew in feeble health,

And they love her – That she died.

IV

They tell me (while they speak

Of her ‘costly broider’d pall’)

That my voice is growing weak –

That I should not sing at all -

V

Or that my tone should be

Tun’d to such solemn song

So mournfully – so mournfully,

That the dead may feel no wrong.

VI

But she is gone above,

With young Hope at her side,

And I am drunk with love

Of the dead, who is my bride. –

VII

Of the dead – dead who lies

All perfum’d there,

With the death upon her eyes,

And the life upon her hair.

VIII

Thus on the coffin loud and long

I strike – the murmur sent

Through the grey chambers to my song,

Shall be the accompaniment.

IX

Thou diedst in thy life’s June –

But thou didst not die too fair:

Thou didst not die too soon,

Nor with too calm an air.

X

From more than friends on earth,

Thy life and love are riven,

To join the untainted mirth

Of more than thrones in heaven.

XI

Therefore, to thee this night

I will no requiem raise,

But waft thee on thy flight,

With a Paean of old days.