An Invite To Eternity

by

John Clare


Wilt thou go with me sweet maid

Say maiden wilt thou go with me

Through the valley depths of shade

Of night and dark obscurity

Where the path hath lost its way

Where the sun forgets the day

Where there's nor life nor light to see

Sweet maiden wilt thou go with me


Where stones will turn to flooding streams

Where plains will rise like ocean waves

Where life will fade like visioned dreams

And mountains darken into caves

Say maiden wilt thou go with me

Through this sad non-identity

Where parents live and are forgot

And sisters live and know us not


Say maiden wilt thou go with me

In this strange death of life to be

To live in death and be the same

Without this life or home or name

At once to be or not to be

That was and is not—yet to see

Things pass like shadows—and the sky

Above, below, around us lie.


The land of shadows wilt thou trace

And look nor know each other's face

The present mixed with reasons gone

And past and present all as one

Say maiden can thy life be led

To join the living with the dead

Then trace thy footsteps on with me

We're wed to one eternity



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