Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/597

 ANNA L^ETITIA BARBAULD 488 Life

E ? E 1 I know not what thou art, But know that thou and I must part, And when, or how, or where we met, I own to me 's a secret yet. But thii> I know, when thou art fled, Where'er they lay these limbs, this head, No clod so valueless shall be As all that then remains of me.

O whither, whither dost thou fly ? Where bend unseen thy trackless course^

And in this strange divorce, Ah, tell where I must seek this compound 1^ To the vast ocean of empyreal flame

From whence thy essence came Dost thou thy flight pursue, when freed From matter's base encumbering weed?

Or do t thou, hid from sight,

Wait, like some spell-bound knight, Through blank oblivious )ears th* appointed hour To break thy trance and renssume thy power ? Yet canst thou without thought or feeling bc^ O say, what art thou, when no more thou'rt thce ?

Life' we have been long together,

Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;

'Tib hard to part when friends arc dear;

Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear;

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