Chapter I: "weep Not, Beloved Friends! nor Let the Air"

Published 1837

Weep not, beloved Friends! nor let the air
For me with sighs be troubled. Not from life
Have I been taken; this is genuine life
And this alone--the life which now I live
In peace eternal; where desire and joy 5
Together move in fellowship without end.--
Francesco Ceni willed that, after death,
His tombstone thus should speak for him.[1] And surely
Small cause there is for that fond wish of ours
Long to continue in this world; a world 10
That keeps not faith, nor yet can point a hope
To good, whereof itself is destitute.

VARIANTS:

[1] 1849.

Francesco Ceni after death enjoined
That thus his tomb should speak for him ... 1837.