Could I have said while he was here ‘My love shall now no further range, There cannot come a mellower change, For now is love mature in ear.’
Love, then, had hope of richer store: What end is here to my complaint? This haunting whisper makes me faint, ‘More years had made me love thee more.’
But Death returns an answer sweet: ‘My sudden frost was sudden gain, And gave all ripeness to the grain, It might have drawn from after-heat.’