Not Death But Love

[ar]

I thought once how Theocritus had sung
Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:


And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung



A shadow across me. Straightway I was ‘ware,
So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;
And a voice said in mastery, while I strove,–


“Guess now who holds thee!â€￾–â€￾Death,â€￾ I said, But, there,
The silver answer rang, “Not Death, but Love.â€￾


- Elizabeth Browning