If Time and Nature serve us both alike,
I shall be dead for years, when you are dying;
Remember then how much I loved the birds:
That should you hear a gentle bird-voice crying
'Sweet! Sweet!' You'll know at once whose lover waits.
I shall be there in all good time to show
The way that leads to a new life and home -
Ere Death can freeze one finger-tip or toe.
But we'll have years together yet, I trust,
In this green world: how many sparrows came
To breakfast here this morning, with the frost
As plump as snow on window-sill and frame?