3
Close the door, the shutters close,
Or thro’[[1]] the windows we shall see
The nakedness and vacancy
Of the dark deserted house.
4
Come away: no more of mirth
Is here or merry-making sound.
The house was builded of the earth,
And shall fall again to ground.
5
Come away: for Life and Thought
Here no longer dwell;
But in a city glorious—
A great and distant city—have bought
A mansion incorruptible.
Would they could have stayed with us!
[1] 1848 and 1851. Through.
The Dying Swan
First printed in 1830.
The superstition here assumed is so familiar from the Classics as well as from modern tradition that it scarcely needs illustration or commentary. But see Plato, Phaedrus, xxxi., and Shakespeare, King John, v., 7.