Read "Dirge (Poems from Clarel)" by Herman Melville online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Stay, Death, Not mine the Christus-wand / Wherewith to charge thee and command: / I plead. Most gently hold the hand / Of her thou leadest far away; / Fear thou to let her naked feet / Tread ashes-but let mosses sweet / Her footing tempt, where'er ye stray.
Shun Orcus; win the moonlit land / Belulled-the silent meadows lone, / Where never any leaf is blown / From lily-stem in Azrael's hand.
There, till her love rejoin her lowly / (Pensive, a shade, but all her own) / On honey feed her, wild and holy; / Or trance her with thy choicest charm.
And if, ere yet the lover's free, / Some added dusk thy rule decree- / That shadow only let it be / Thrown in the moon-glade by the palm.