Poem - Archibald T. Strong

Vain Death

By Archibald T. Strong

All the first night she might not weep
But watched till morning came,
And when she slept at dawn, she heard
The dead man call her name.

All the next night she watched and wept
And called on death for grace,
And when she slept before the dawn
She saw the dead man’s face.

The third night through she laughed as one
That knows her way to bliss.
And in the instant ere she slept
She felt the dead man’s kiss.

She rose and faced the flickering fire,
(And, oh, but she was fair!)
Like a wild witch behind her danced
The shadow of her hair.

She took her penknife from its sheath,
The tender blade she kissed,
And by the firelight’s dying leap
She bared her little wrist;

And where the vein ran large and blue
She cut, once and again,
Yet ere she swooned from life, she knew
Her death had been in vain;

For while life thundered in her ears
Ere yet her pulse might fail,
Far off across the kindless night
She heard the dead man’s wail;

And knew her doom was one with theirs’
That kill the life God gave,
And that she might not leave this earth
Her soul alive to save,
But ay must dwell within that house
As in a living grave,

While he for whom she died might ne’er
Win to her in that place,
But must for ever make his moan
Ranging in agony alone
The trackless void of space.