Love-Song
If Death should claim me for her own to-day,And softly I should falter from your side,Oh, tell me, loved one, would my memory stay,And would my image in your heart abide?Or should I be as some forgotten dream,That lives its little space, then fades entire?Should Time send o’er you its relentless stream,To cool your heart, and quench for aye love’s fire?
I would not for the world, love, give you pain,Or ever compass what would cause you grief;And, oh, how well I know that tears are vain!But love is sweet, my dear, and life is brief;So if some day before you I should goBeyond the sound and sight of song and sea,‘T would give my spirit stronger wings to knowThat you remembered still and wept for me.