[Say, wilt]1 thou go with me, sweet maid?
Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me?
Through the valley-depths of shade,
Of [bright]2 and dark obscurity?
Where the path [hath]3 lost its way,
Where the sun forgets the day;
Where there's nor [light nor life]4 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 vision'd dreams,
And [darkness]5 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 marr'd 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.