LXXXI.
             
        Could I have said while he was here,
            ‘My love shall now no further range;
            There cannot come a mellower change,
        For now is love mature in ear.’

        Love, then, had hope of richer store:
            What end is here to my complaint?
            This haunting whisper makes me faint,
        ‘More years had made me love thee more.’

        But Death returns an answer sweet:
            ‘My sudden frost was sudden gain,
            And gave all ripeness to the grain,
        It might have drawn from after-heat.’