Come, Let Us Make Love Deathless
Herbert Trench's poem urges a lover to make their love deathless, since life on Earth is brief and the multitudes die without understanding. The speaker rejects any heaven beyond this world, vowing to keep the love's flame unsullied and great, ennobled by the fading eyes that see the world once.
By Herbert Trench · First published 1901 · Genre: Love poetry, Carpe diem poetry, Lyric poetry · 177 words
First lines
Come, let us make love deathless, thou and I, / Seeing that our footing on the Earth is brief -- / Seeing that her multitudes sweep out to die / Mocking at all that passes their belief. / For standard of our love not theirs we take: / If we go hence to-day / Fill the high cup that is so soon to break / With richer wine than they!
Ay, since beyond these walls no heavens there be / Joy to revive or wasted youth repair, / I'll not bedim the lovely flame in thee / Nor sully the sad splendour that we wear. / Great be the love, if with the lover dies / Our greatness past recall, / And nobler for the fading of those eyes / The world seen once for all.
Similar titles
- The Autumnal by John Donne
- Farewell To Nature by Thomas Gordon Hake
- Growing Old by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
- The Flea by John Donne
- When I Am Dead by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
- Epitaph by Thomas Hardy
Genres
- Love poetry — The entire poem is addressed to a lover and centers on the desire to make love last beyond mortality.
- Carpe diem poetry — The speaker urges seizing the present because life is brief and there is no afterlife to repair wasted youth.
- Lyric poetry — It is a brief, personal, song-like utterance of one speaker's emotion, with a refrain-like intensity and musical cadence.
- Memento mori poetry — Its meditation on death, the fading of eyes, and the brevity of footing on Earth keeps mortality at the center of the argument.
Tags
love poetry · eternal love · carpe diem · mortality · brevity of life · transience · immortality · defiance of death · rejection of heaven · earthly love · lovers · fidelity
What this Textopian page supports
Come, Let Us Make Love Deathless is listed on Textopian as a poem by Herbert Trench, dated 1901 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Herbert Trench
- Date: 1901 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Love poetry, Carpe diem poetry, Lyric poetry, Memento mori poetry, Epicurean poetry
- Length: 177 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for Come, Let Us Make Love Deathless by Herbert Trench
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