I know nothing about death but to death
I must return my love, my gifts and life
Of my childhood spent to my ageing breath —
The nostalgia insured of peace and strife
My eyes did witnessed and my heart did bear - - -
The heat, the frost of all life's weather scene
In joys I have lived in boldness and fear
In the wildness of heart — my youthful sin.
But still of death - - - I know not her store
A gold tinted room or a blank design?
From breadth to width - - - no life's span can measure
The length or height — a straight or slant recline
That I should move in away from the world
And find rest with the devil or with God.
— J.Emmy