Classic Poem

She has known death to hover near her bed
And smiled to find in him another friend
Who nods but wonders what life might have said
To urge him there so anxiously to bend,
Till life explains, I wanted you to see
A love that kept my aged heart astir
And her to feel how precious she must be
Who causes even you to bow to her:

The huddled ones behold her solitude
And circle round the body wistfully,
Too grieved with loss to mark how death imbued
With her must also crave her company:
Might not the smile be his as well as hers
And their repose the trust that each confers?