Fair And 'Guiling Copesmate Death

(Velvet Darkness They Fear)

Gaunt and gnarl'd

(Fair And Guiling Copesmate Death)

Reflecteth the silver shield this welkin aghast

And with haste translateth to gild'd black post and fast

(Anon, anon, say I. The lid aside, lid aside

Crawl without this velvet-clad coffin blest)

(The bottom sand of the hourglass is at tide)

Sensing thispine is as deep as the deepest chasm

('Tis and hath e'er been merry blood to pest)

Hither! Cedeand fulfil my phantasm

(To be adust for time longer can I not bide)

Cherish me andsonorously do me laud

(Hence the heart hale out thro' the chest)

For dread! Thineeyes will behold a guise faugh\'d

(Misery thee? Rather misery me

For in Time's durance am I naught but wee)

This tender and loving pest I to thee bequeath

Thence switly wilt thou errant to 'Neath

(And to me should'st thou be the humblemost knave

Lest fear, spit I on thy cist and grave

Lest leer I at thee and do bewitch

And the tharms fluttering claw'd and eldritch)

To conquer thee and thy blood for glore

Art thou my afeard and reluctant whore

Irksomely coy, save wiliéd by alarum

Bear this torture and maim with decorum

(If e'er always was I this blissful and blithe

Would I resign to but its wee tithe?)

Purvey my ache and quench my profoundest urge

And to thee will I sing the lull-dull dirge

Deliver thy blood like the rill filleth the ghyll

(Burrow to the trothplight with Night and Devil

Bid Him to league with me, forsooth, merry to 'come 'twill)

Whilom wast thou vestal, yet now flit to thy tryst

Elsewise will I coerce thine consonantry to turn whist

Grasp I the snath and cut off thine breath

(Death, oh, fair and 'guiling copesmate Death)

So that thoucanst in darkness and inferno vester

(Be not a malais'd beggar, claim this bloody jester)

For do isolely what He to me liefly saith