Classic Poem

She came like music: when she went
A silence fell upon the man.
Death took the sun away with her—
Ann Rutledge—deathless Ann.

She left upon his life a light,
A music sounding through his years,
A spirit singing through his toils,
A memory in his tears.

She was the dream within his dream;
And when she turned and went away
She took the romance from the night
The rapture from the day.

But from her beauty and her doom,
A man rose merciful and just;
And a great People still can feel
The passion of her dust.