A LAST MESSAGE

BY GRACE DENIO LITCHFIELD

DEAR, I lie dying, and thou dost not know—

Thou whom of all the world I love the best,

And wilt not know until I lie at rest,

With lips forever closed and lids dropped low.

O Love, O Love, I cannot leave thee so!

Cannot, still undivined, still unexpressed,

Unheeding to the last my heart’s behest,

Dumb into the eternal silence go!

What reck I in this moment of disgrace?

Albeit the whole world hear what my heart saith,

I cry aloud to thee across all space,

To thee—to thee—I call with my last breath!

O Love, lean forth from out thy dwelling-place!

Listen, and learn I loved thee, Love, till death.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

FROM THE STATUE BY KARL BITTER, FOR THE
JEFFERSON MEMORIAL IN ST. LOUIS

This statue will be unveiled in the presence of a congressional
committee on April 30, 1913, the one hundred and tenth anniversary
of the Louisiana Purchase.

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