Invitation to Eternity

Say, wilt thou go with me, sweet maid,     Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me     Through the valley-depths of shade,     Of bright and dark obscurity;     Where the path has lost its way,     Where the sun forgets the day,     Where there's nor light nor life to see,     Sweet maiden, wilt thou go with me?     Where stones will turn to flooding streams,     Where plains will rise like ocean's waves,     Where life will fade like visioned dreams     And darkness darken into caves,     Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me     Through this sad non-identity     Where parents live and are forgot,     And sisters live and know us not?     Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me     In this strange death of life to be,     To live in death and be the same,     Without this life or home or name,     At once to be and not to be--     That was and is not--yet to see     Things pass like shadows, and the sky     Above, below, around us lie?     The land of shadows wilt thou trace,     Nor look nor know each other's face;     The present marred with reason gone,     And past and present both as one?     Say, maiden, can thy life be led     To join the living and the dead?     Then trace thy footsteps on with me:     We are wed to one eternity.