DARKNESS
A gentleman of wit and charm,
A kindly heart, a cleanly mind,
One who was quick with hand or purse
To lift the burden of his kind.
A brain well balanced and mature,
A soul that shrank from all things base,
So rode he forth that winter day,
Complete in every mortal grace.
And then—the blunder of a horse,
The crash upon the frozen clods,
And—Death? Ah! no such dignity,
But Life, all twisted and at odds!
