Elizabeth Barrett Browning Poems : A Thought for a Lonely Death-Bed

IF GOD compel thee to this destiny,
To die alone,--with none beside thy bed
To ruffle round with sobs thy last word said,
And mark with tears the pulses ebb from thee,--
Then pray alone--"O Christ, come tenderly!
By thy forsaken Sonship,--and the red
Drear wine-press,--and the wilderness outspread,--
And the lone garden where Thine agony
Fell bloody from thy brow,--by all of those
Permitted desolations, comfort mine!
No earthly friend being near me, interpose
No deathly angel 'twixt my face and Thine;
But stoop Thyself to gather my life's rose,
And smile away my mortal to Divine."