Euthanasia
by George Gordon, Lord Byron
1
- When Time, or soon or late, shall bring
- The dreamless sleep that lulls the dead,
- Oblivion! may thy languid wing
- Wave gently oer my dying bed!
2
- No band of friends or heirs be there,
- To weep, or wish, the coming blow:
- No maiden, with dishevelled hair,
- To feel, or feign, decorous woe.
3
- But silent let me sink to earth,
- With no officious mourners near:
- I would not mar one hour of mirth,
- Nor startle friendship with a tear.
4
- Yet Love, if Love in such an hour
- Could nobly check its useless sighs,
- Might then exert its latest power
- In her who lives, and him who dies.
5
- Twere sweet, my Psyche! to the last
- Thy features still serene to see:
- Forgetful of its struggles past,
- Een Pain itself should smile on thee.
6
- But vain the wishfor Beauty still
- Will shrink, as shrinks the ebbing breath;
- And womens tears, produced at will,
- Deceive in life, unman in death.
7
- Then lonely be my latest hour,
- Without regret, without a groan?
- For thousands Death hath ceasd to lower,
- And pain been transient or unknown.
8
- Ay, but to die, and go, alas!
- Where all have gone, and all must go!
- Ere born to life and living woe!
9
- Count oer the joys thine hours have seen,
- Count er thy days from anguish free,
- And know, whatever thou hast been,
- Tis something better not to be.
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