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Toward the same shadows, bearing the same spark,
  His vanity and empty nothingness.
Yet in the mighty Dark
Dear is the spirit; grievously we know
  Earth has one burden more, one soul the less.

All's WellJohn Hall Wheelock


THE RETURN
In some far and lonely midnight
I shall arise as in a dream,
And part dark curtains on a strange room
Where mysterious candles gleam.

I shall open an unknown book
In that weird and wind-stirred place,
And come upon a poem
With a sad face.

I shall listen to my dead heart's cry
Faint through the years that are gone,
And I shall feel over my shoulder
The Silence looking on.

And very softly he will touch me,
And I shall turn toward the gloom;
He will take my arm and quietly
Lead me out of the room.

Poetry, A Magazine of VerseOscar Williams

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