Sonnets and Songs — Alpha and Omega

_Alpha and Omega_ I died to-day, and yet upon my eyes A glamour of the gorgeous summer green Still wavers, and my brain has kept a keen, Sweet bird-song.

Glad with light, the summer skies Are sapphire, and a purple shadow lies Across the hills--no change is on the scene Since happy yesterday.

Ah!

can it mean The body lives when stricken spirit dies?

The blow has fallen, yet I can recall The first of days when this dead heart drew breath-- A wondrous moon-flower waking of a heart.

Strange--then as now the moment seemed to part Body from soul, so like are birth and death;

So did I gain, and so I lost my all.

XIV