Leaving Martindale
Shall I be true
as these hills bind me
as these skies find me
as waters weather me,
as leaves crown me?
My kiss keep faith
with death and birth,
my joy with pain,
my heaven with earth?
I love you as the air
enfolds the earth,
as darkness holds a star,
as waters, life.
You are the smiling heart,
the sunlit noon
of one who soon must sleep
her death alone.
Shall I be true?
Love binds in vain
whom death must loose–
the flesh, the pain
that knows you now
soon will not know
that love must pass,
that times must go.
In Leaving Martindale the major thirds and minor sixths of Far Darting are replaced by the minor third interval and the diminished seventh arpeggio. An almost static texture is sustained throughout this slow and rather heart-rending song.