8/12/25

1

Wilt thou go with me sweet maid

Say maiden wilt thou go with me

Through the valley-depths of shade,

Of night and dark obscurity,

Where the path has lost its way

Where the sun forgets the day

Where there’s nor life nor light to see

Sweet maiden, wilt thou go with me?

2

Where stones will turn to flooding streams

Where plains will rise like ocean waves

Where life will fade like visioned dreams

And mountains darken into caves

Say maiden wilt thou go with me

Through this sad non-identity

Where parents live and are forgot

And sisters live and know us not?

3

Say maiden wilt thou go with me

In this strange death of life to be

To live in death and be the same

Without this life, or home, or name

At once to be, and not to be

That was, and is not—yet to see

Things pass like shadows—and the sky

Above, below, around us lie?

4

The land of shadows wilt thou trace

And look—nor know each other’s face,

The present mixed with reasons gone

And past, and present all as one.

Say, maiden can thy life be led

To join the living to the dead?
Then trace thy footsteps on with me

We’re wed to one eternity.

“An Invite to Eternity” by John Clare