Near the Cascades + 

Hold back thy lips, I pray; + 

Just let me rest this way; + 

My soul is in the spray + 

Arising from the silvery cascades murmuring farewell to the day. + 

Thy kisses ’neath a sigh + 

Of mine extinguished lie; + 

O friend, I choke, I die: + 

Pray, let me raise my head to see the parting light, the vivid sky, + 

If every kiss of thine + 

Is safely kept with mine + 

For one for whom I pine, + 

Wouldst thou, contented with the taking, call my love a love divine? + 

Ay, and for every tear + 

Thou sheddest when I’m near + 

I shed a score to hear + 

Her echo my desire’s sigh, albeit she is not thy peer. + 

If I were but a reed, + 

Or but a fern or weed, + 

This would not be my creed; + 

But prick thou these cold slips and all the roots of me in heaven will bleed. + 

Thy burning breath is creeping + 

All over me; ’t is leaping + 

Into my bones and sweeping + 

Their ashes out, up and into mine eyes, alas! the awful reaping. + 

No longer do I fear, + 

Nor see, nor feel, nor hear; + 

No longer am I near; + 

If thou wilt quench thy flame, kiss now the lips that were to thee so dear. + 

As well kiss thou the grass + 

On which I lay, alas! + 

Like me, thou too wilt pass; + 

One kiss will turn thy lips to ashes and one tear, thine eyes to glass. + 

Beneath this hemlock tree + 

A clod I leave to thee; + 

But over land and sea + 

My soul is rising, rising, rising, searching for the gods that be. + 

But gods have lived, and lied, + 

And loved, and fell, and died; + 

And like me too they cried + 

For mercy at the snow white feet of Beauty’s daughter, Beauty’s bride. + 

And when from Beauty’s spell + 

Her soul is free, she’ll dwell + 

In mine, the storm to quell; + 

In mine she’ll rise to realms of bliss, or swiftly whirl into the deepest hell. + 