Songs From “Death’s Jest-Book” II - Dirge

IF thou wilt ease thine heart  
Of love and all its smart,  
 Then sleep, dear, sleep;  
And not a sorrow  
 Hang any tear on your eye-lashes;  
 Lie still and deep,  
 Sad soul, until the sea-wave washes  
The rim o’ the sun to-morrow,  
 In eastern sky.  
 
But wilt thou cure thine heart
Of love and all its smart,  
 Then die, dear, die;  
’T is deeper, sweeter,  
 Than on a rose bank to lie dreaming  
 With folded eye;
 And then alone, amid the beaming  
Of love’s stars, thou ’lt meet her  
 In eastern sky.