"When I Am Dead"

When I Am Dead

When I am dead 

Bring roses red, 

And poppies―blooms of rest― 

And heap them on my breast, 

That I may breathe their perfume deep― 

And sleep and sleep and sleep! 

No flowers white, 

For chill delight, 

Give me on that glad day, 

But bend and smile and say: 

“Bring blooms that burn and light and glow― 

She loved all warmth and color so!” 

All about me to my feet 

Drop clovers pink and sweet. 

Why should you lay those cold, white things 

On the heart where lies with folded wings 

The cold, dead bird of song? 

Dearest, the last night is so long― 

I pray you pile the poppies deep 

Upon my breast―that I may sleep! 

When I am dead 

Let the sun’s red 

Strike thro’ uncurtained pane 

From off the singing main; 

Yea, everything must sing that day 

When I go on my glad new way, 

And if there should be any tears― 

Let them be for my wasted years, 

And not for me. Throw all the windows wide 

And let the strong surge of the tide 

Come sounding once more up the hill― 

And I shall hear it still! 

And each home-coming wave shall say: 

“Be glad, be very glad, to-day” ― 

And for the last time I shall hear! 

But after that I would not hear, 

For sweet as thought of hearing seems, 

Who hears must dream―and I would have no dreams! 

So pile the crimson poppies deep― 

For a long dreamless sleep. 

"When I Am Dead" as it appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).