Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942)
A Request
1When I am dead
2I would that ye make my bed
3On that low-lying, windy waste by the sea,
4Where the silvery grasses rustle and lisp;
5There, where the crisp
6Foam-flakes shall fly over me,
7And murmurs creep
8From the ancient heart of the deep,
9Lulling me ever, I shall most sweetly sleep.
10While the eerie sea-folk croon
11On the long dim shore by the light of a waning moon.
12I shall not hear
13Clamor of young life anear,
14Voices of gladness to stir an unrest;
15Only the wandering mists of the sea
16Shall companion me;
17Only the wind in its quest
18Shall come where I lie,
19Or the rain from the brooding sky
20With furtive footstep shall pass me by,
21And never a dream of the earth
22Shall break on my slumber with lure of an out-lived mirth.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: L. M. Montgomery, The Watchman and Other Poems (Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916): 101. PS 8525 O68W3 Robarts Library.
First publication date:
August
1915
Publication date note: Canadian Magazine (August 1915).
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/4
Rhyme: irregularly rhyming
Other poems by Lucy Maud Montgomery
