When I have folded up this tent
And laid the soiled thing by,
I shall go forth 'neath different stars,
Under an unknown sky.
And yet whatever house I find
Beneath the grass or snow
Will ne'er be tenantless of love
Or lack the face I know.
O lips—wild roses wet with rain!
Blown hair of drifted brown!
O passionate eyes! O panting heart—
When in that colder town
I lie, the one inhabitant,
My hands across my breast,
How warm through all eternity
The summer of my rest!
To each frail root beneath the ground
That thrusts its flower above,
I shall impart a fiercer sap—
I who have known your love!
And growing things will lean to me
To learn what love hath won,
Till I shall whisper to the dust
That secret of the Sun.
Yea, though my spirit never wake
To hear the voice I knew,
Even an endless sleep would be
Stirred by the dreams of You!
Frederic Lawrence Knowles [1869-1905]