THE LETTER
by: Thomas Bailey Aldrich
(1836-1906)
 HELD his
letter in my hand,
- And even while I read
- The lightning flashed across the land
- The word that he was dead.
-
- How strange it seemed! His living voice
- Was speaking from the page
- Those courteous phrases, tersely choice,
- Light-hearted, witty, sage.
-
- I wondered what it was that died!
- The man himself was here,
- His modesty, his scholar's pride,
- His soul serene and clear.
-
- These neither death nor time shall dim,
- Still this sad thing must be--
- Henceforth I may not speak to him,
- Though he can speak to me!
|
"The Letter" is reprinted
from THE SISTERS' TRAGEDY WITH OTHER POEMS,LYRICAL AND DRAMATIC.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1891. |
MORE POEMS BY THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |
|
|
|
|
