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"Poems. Volume III / H. F. Gould [electronic text]." In the digital collection American Verse Project. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAD5889.0003.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 30, 2024.
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descriptionPage 146
MY PORTRAIT.
WELL, thou art done, cold, speechless thing;Yet, in thy silence, with the powerA crowd of feelings deep to bringUnknown until the present hour.
But wherefore done, to life so true?Not human pride, nor vanityCould ask the artist hand to do,And show the world a deed like thee.
And was it simple most, or kindTo have upon the canvass castMy semblance, thus to leave behindMy shadow, when myself am past?
I know not if another eyeWill ever weep beside thee, moreThan mine does now, I know not why—It never dropped such tears before.
I view thee as a piece, composedTo last, when I have passed from sight—When time and earth to me are closed,To be in time and earthly light.
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Perhaps 't is this, that makes me weep—The thought that I shall pass away,And those, who have thee then to keep,May glance at thee, and still be gay.
But why should grief be felt by me,For fear that others will not grieve?And what to others then will beA shade of life, that I may leave?
Still, from their deep, mysterious springGush up these hot, resistless tears;Whilst thou, cold, heartless, stoic thing,Dost wear a smile that's set for years.
Years! Ah, but then, when years shall wipeFrom being every line of thee,The spirit, which thy prototypeEnshrined, shall live eternally!
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