John Hay: Euthanasia

   Euthanasia

Take from my hand, dear love, these opening flowers.
Afar from thee they grew, ‘neath alien skies
Their stems sought light and life in humble wise,
Fed by the careless suns and vagrant showers.
But now their fate obeys the rule of ours.
They pass to airs made glorious by thine eyes.
Smit with swift joy, they breathe, in fragrant sighs,
Their souls out toward thee in their last glad hours,
Paying leal tribute to a brighter bloom.
Thus, and not other, is the giver’s fate.
Through years unblest by thee, a cheerless path,
A checkered maze of common glare and gloom,
He came to know in rapture deep though late
How thou couldst brighten life and gentle death.

John Hay
(1838-1905)
Euthanasia

fleursdumal.nl magazine

More in: Archive G-H, Archive G-H, CLASSIC POETRY