Thank Heaven! — the crisis —

The danger is past,

And the lingering illness

Is over at last —

And the fever called “Living”

Is conquered at last.

——

Sadly, I know, I am

Shorn of my strength,

And no muscle I move,

As I lie at full length —

But no matter! — I feel

I am better at length.

——

And I rest so composedly

Now, in my bed,

That any beholder

Might fancy me dead — [column 2:]

Might start at beholding me,

Thinking me dead.

——

The moaning and groaning,

The sighing and sobbing,

Are quieted now; with

The horrible throbbing

At heart: — ah, that horrible,

Horrible throbbing!

——

The sickness — the nausea —

The pitiless pain —

Have ceased, with the fever

That maddened my brain —

With the fever called “Living”

That burned in my brain.

—— [page 2:]

And oh, of all tortures

That torture the worst

Has abated — the terrible

Torture of thirst

For the napthaline rivers

Of Passion accurst! —

I have drank of a water

That quenches all thirst: —

——

Of a water that flows,

With a lullaby sound,

From a spring but a very few

Feet under ground —

From a cavern not very far

Down under ground.

——

And ah, let it never be

Foolishly said

That my room it is gloomy

And narrow my bed;

For man never slept

In a different bed;

And, to sleep, you must slumber

In just such a bed.

——

My tantalised [[tantalized]] spirit, here,

Blandly reposes,

Forgetting, or never

Regretting, its roses —

Its old agitations

Of myrtles and roses.

[[——]] [column 2:]

For now, while so quietly

Lying, I fancy

A holier odor about me,

Of pansy —

A rosemary odor

Commingled with pansy —

With rue and the beautiful

Puritan pansy.

——

And so I lie tranquilly,

Bathing in many

A dream of the truth

And the beauty of Annie —

Drowned in a bath

Of the tresses of Annie.

——

She tenderly kissed me,

She fondly caressed,

And then I fell gently

To sleep on her breast —

Deeply to sleep from the

Heaven of her breast.

——

When the light was extinguished

She covered me warm,

And she prayed to the angels

To keep me from harm —

To the queen of the angels

To shield me from harm.

—— [page 3:]

And I lie so composedly

Now, in my bed,

(Knowing her love)

That you fancy me dead —

And I rest so contentedly

Now, in my bed,

(With her love at my breast)

That you fancy me dead —

That you shudder to look at me,

Thinking me dead.

[[——]] [column 2:]

But my heart it is brighter

Than all of the many

Stars of the sky, for it

Sparkles with Annie —

It glows with the light

Of the love of my Annie —

With the thought of the light

Of the eyes of my Annie.

——