The Last Answer

She turned round to me with her steadfast eyes.
"I tell you I have looked upon the dead;
Have kissed the brow and the cold lips," she said;
"Have called upon the sleeper to arise.
He loved me, yet he stirred not: on this wise,
Not bowing in weak agony my head.
But all too sure of what life is, to dread,
Learned I that love and hope are fallacies."
She gazed quite calmly on me: and I felt
Awed and astonished and almost afraid:
For what was I to have admonished her?
Then, being full of doubt and fear, I knelt,
And tears came to my eyes even as I prayed:
But she meanwhile only grew statelier.