O faster! O faster! O yet more fast!
There's nothing on earth but driving like this:
I _know_ it will all come right at the last,
But I am not certain what the right is.
There is a river and there is a boat
(I read it all in a far-away tale)--
O faster! O faster! you do but float;
Pull away with your oars, shake out your sail!
A woman, I know, must sail in a skiff,
And reach a ship ere it reaches the sea;
But it _is_ a wonderful matter if
The woman who sits here is really me!
O faster! O faster! you scarcely stir--
The ship has grown large that was but a speck!
We have reached the ship--we have boarded her--
And I SEE who is standing on her deck!
I see who stands there, I hear and see
His incredulous joy and startled cry,
His beautiful wonder at sight of me;
I feel his embraces, and then--I die!
PART IV.
I know not how long I was lying dead;
I know not what happen'd day after day:
But I know whose breast supported my head;
I know in whose arms I passively lay.
I know whose voice I was hearing again;
With no vivid emotion through me sent,
But only with that sweet absence of pain
The young call repose, and the old, content.
I know of the presence that o'er me shed
Through all that I suffer'd a perfect ease;
I know all this because I am dead--
I suppose the dead can know what they please!
Can I be dead? It is foolish to die,
Earth shining brighter than any bright star.
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