The Old Soldier's Story: Poems and Prose Sketches. Riley James Whitcomb

Чтение книги онлайн.

      Why, to kiss the very hem

      Of the mourning-weeds she wore,

      Like the winds that rustled them,

      I had gone the round world o'er;

      And to touch her hand I swear

      All things dareless I would dare!

      But unto themselves apart,

      Whispering, they said of her,

      "Dying of a broken heart —

      Death her only comforter —

      For the man she loved is dead —

      She will follow soon!" they said.

      So I mutely turned away,

      Turned with sorrow and despair,

      Yearning still from day to day

      For that woman dying there,

      Till at last, by longing led,

      I returned to find her – dead?

      "Dead?" – I know that word would tell

      Rhyming there – but in this case

      "Wed" rhymes equally as well

      In the very selfsame place —

      And, in fact, the latter word

      Is the one she had preferred.

      Yet unto themselves apart,

      Whisp'ring they had said of her —

      "Dying of a broken heart —

      Death her only comforter —

      For the man she loved is dead —

      She will follow soon!" they said.