An Epitaph Written in the Sand, on a Butterfly Drowned in the Sea
Poor Psyche, to a Power supernal wed,
How strong a fate on this thy frailness fell!
What strange ironic word shall here be read?
Dead sign of immortality, farewell!
I sigh not that the summer fields have lost
One flying flower: who counts the butterflies?
I sigh not that thy sunny hour was crossed
The self-same Shadow surely waits mine eyes.
Thy piteous terror of the appointed end,
For this I sigh! The billow, poised above,
Fell on thee like the beast that leaps to rend;
Thou couldst not know thy bridegroom Death was Love!
How otherwise thy sister, yea the Soul
Bent brooding o’er these broken wings of thine!—
Through all her house of mystery once she stole
To the inmost room, and found a Face benign.
Now whirl her where ye must, ye waves of Law—
Aye, tear her vans, her painted hopes, apart!
She cannot fear, remembering what she saw:
Dark bridegroom Death, she knows thee Who thou art!