400
As they themselves were weaned each one
From that sweet food,—­even from the thirst
Of death, and nothingness, and rest,
Strange inmate of a living breast! 
Which all that I had undergone 405
Of grief and shame, since she, who first
The gates of that dark refuge closed,
Came to my sight, and almost burst
The seal of that Lethean spring;
But these fair shadows interposed:  410
For all delights are shadows now! 
And from my brain to my dull brow
The heavy tears gather and flow: 
I cannot speak:  Oh, let me weep!

The tears which fell from her wan eyes 415
Glimmered among the moonlight dew: 
Her deep hard sobs and heavy sighs
Their echoes in the darkness threw. 
When she grew calm, she thus did keep
The tenor of her tale: 
He died:  420
I know not how:  he was not old,
If age be numbered by its years: 
But he was bowed and bent with fears,
Pale with the quenchless thirst of gold,
Which, like fierce fever, left him weak; 425
And his strait lip and bloated cheek
Were warped in spasms by hollow sneers;
And selfish cares with barren plough,
Not age, had lined his narrow brow,
And foul and cruel thoughts, which feed 430
Upon the withering life within,
Like vipers on some poisonous weed. 
Whether his ill were death or sin
None knew, until he died indeed,
And then men owned they were the same. 435

Seven days within my chamber lay
That corse, and my babes made holiday: 
At last, I told them what is death: 
The eldest, with a kind of shame,
Came to my knees with silent breath, 440
And sate awe-stricken at my feet;
And soon the others left their play,
And sate there too.  It is unmeet
To shed on the brief flower of youth
The withering knowledge of the grave; 445
From me remorse then wrung that truth. 
I could not bear the joy which gave
Too just a response to mine own. 
In vain.  I dared not feign a groan,
And in their artless looks I saw, 450
Between the mists of fear and awe,
That my own thought was theirs, and they
Expressed it not in words, but said,
Each in its heart, how every day
Will pass in happy work and play, 455
Now he is dead and gone away.