Life
Anna Lætitia Barbauld
1743 to 1825
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Life! I know not what thou art,
But that thou and I must part;
And when, how, or where we met,
I own to me’s a secret yet.
But this I know, when art fled,
Where’er they lay these limbs, this head,
No clod so valueless shall be,
As that then remains of me.
O whither, whither thou fly,
Where bend unseen thy trackless course,
And in this strange divorce,
Ah tell where I seek this compound I?
To the vast ocean of flame,
From whence thy essence came,
Dost thy flight pursue, when freed
From matter’s base weed?
Or dost thou, hid from sight,
Wait, like some spell-bound knight,
Through blank oblivious years th’ hour,
To break thy trance and reassume thy power?
canst thou without thought or feeling be?
O say art thou, when no more thou ’rt thee?
Life! we’ve been long together,
Through pleasant and through weather;
’Tis hard to part when friends are dear;
Perhaps ’t will cost a sigh, a tear;
Then steal away, give little warning,
Choose thine time;
Say not Good night, but in some clime
Bid me Good morning.