Poems (Mary Coleridge)/Poem 193

CXCIII CONTRADICTIONS
When I am dead, I know that thou wilt weep,
I that have never caused thee grief before,
I that have soothed thee, sung thy woes to sleep,
I shall have wrought thee sorrow wild and deep,
   And made thy burden more.

When I am dead, I know thou wilt forget,
Thou that didst never yet forget thy friend.
"Grieve not!" I cry; "I would not have thee fret"—
"Remember! I would live within thee yet."
   In vain, I know the end.