When I Consider

When I Consider

My dearest love, when we two pass
The countless roses strewn upon
Our passion’s paths, so sweetly drawn,
My heart whispers, “Alas!”

When I consider, when years die,
How worms will waltz upon my lips,
Which yours in present bliss eclipse,
I cannot help but sigh.

And when I ponder how my skin,
Which your sweet tongue now glides across,
Will fall away, I mourn the loss
And think decay’s a sin.

Your beaming hazel eyes I love
Will follow nature’s course straight through,
And disappear in spite of you,
To see no more above.

Your russet tresses that I weave
My loving fingers fondly in,
Will one day grow quite pale and thin,
And so beauty bereave.

Our blood, which warms at every touch,
Will one day join the dust and grow
As cold as January snow,
And feel about as much.

And O, my darling girl, just think!
We’ll inescapably recline
In separate coffins carved of pine,
To test oblivion’s brink.

When I consider all these sorrows,
How tragic, fleeting Love and Life
Become amidst Death’s woe, Time’s strife,
I think of our tomorrows.

Yes, let’s love fully, kindly, truly,
And should Death and Time conspire
To douse our passion’s starry fire,
We may meet them duly!