From Shanklin
From Shanklin
Original Text
Poems of Henrietta A. Huxley with Three of Thomas Henry Huxley (London: Duckworth, 1913): 1. 9700.d.1043 Cambridge University Library
2Have you and I, hand clasped in hand,
3Sometimes all smiles, sometimes in bitter tears,
4Wended our way through the strange land
5Of living men; until with silvering hair,
6And graver mien and steps more slow,
7Adown the strand of age we fare
8To the still ocean, out beyond time's flow.
9True wife, housemother, worn with many cares,
10Love's afterglow shall brighten all the years
11That yet are ours; and closer still shall be our clasp
12Of hands, until they nerveless fall and cease to grasp.
Notes
1] Shanklin: popular village and seaside resort on the Isle of Wight, beloved of Darwin, Keats, and Longfellow. dear wife: "Nettie," Henrietta Anne Heathorn (1825-1915), whom Huxley met in Australia and married in 1855. At Huxley's request, these verse lines by Henrietta are carved on his tombstone:
And if there be no meeting past the grave,Back to Line
If all is darkness, silence, yet 'tis rest.
Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep,
For still He giveth His beloved sleep,
And if an endless sleep He wills, so best.
Publication Start Year
1913
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2002
Rhyme