For Annie
Lines:102Movement:Romanticism
Thank Heaven! the crisis-- The danger is past,And the lingering illness Is over at last--And the fever called "Living" Is conquered at last. Sadly, I know, I am shorn of my strength,And no muscle I move As I lie at full length--But no matter!--I feel I am better at length. And I rest so composedly, Now in my bed,That any beholder Might fancy me dead--Might start at beholding me Thinking me dead. The moaning and groaning, The sighing and sobbing,Are quieted now, With that horrible throbbingAt heart:--ah, that horrible, Horrible throbbing! The sickness--the nausea-- The pitiless pain--Have ceased, with the fever That maddened my brain--With the fever called "Living" That burned in my brain. And oh! of all tortures _That_ torture the worstHas abated--the terrible Torture of thirst,For the naphthaline river Of Passion accurst:--I have drank of a water That quenches all thirst:-- Of a water that flows, With a lullaby sound,From a spring but a very few Feet under ground--From a cavern not very far Down under ground. And ah! let it never Be foolishly saidThat my room it is gloomy And narrow my bed--For man never slept In a different bed;And, to _sleep_, you must slumber In just such a bed. My tantalized spirit Here blandly reposes,Forgetting, or never Regretting its roses--Its old agitations Of myrtles and roses: For now, while so quietly Lying, it fanciesA holier odor About it, of pansies--A rosemary odor, Commingled with pansies--With rue and the beautiful Puritan pansies. And so it lies happily, Bathing in manyA dream of the truth And the beauty of Annie--Drowned in a bath Of the tresses of Annie. She tenderly kissed me, She fondly caressed,And then I fell gently To sleep on her breast--Deeply to sleep From the heaven of her breast. When the light was extinguished, She covered me warm,And she prayed to the angels To keep me from harm--To the queen of the angels To shield me from harm. And I lie so composedly, Now in my bed(Knowing her love) That you fancy me dead--And I rest so contentedly, Now in my bed,(With her love at my breast) That you fancy me dead--That you shudder to look at me. Thinking me dead. But my heart it is brighter Than all of the manyStars in the sky, For it sparkles with Annie--It glows with the light Of the love of my Annie--With the thought of the light Of the eyes of my Annie.