I'm sure all of you recognize this painting Ophelia (1852) by Sir John Everett Millais, but did you know the model for Ophelia, Elizabeth Siddall, became a muse for many other Pre-Raphaelite painters and was herself an artist and a poet, and wrote my favorite poem?
"Lord May I Come?" was written shortly before her death from opium overdose.
Her husband, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was also a Pre-Raphaelite painter and writer, but he was ashamed of her poor background, cheated on her, and after a miscarriage, Lizzie Siddal took her own life.
Lord May I Come?
Life and night are falling from me,
Death and day are opening on me,
Wherever my footsteps come and go,
Life is a stony way of woe.
Lord, have I long to go?
Hallow hearts are ever near me,
Soulless eyes have ceased to cheer me:
Lord may I come to thee?
Life and youth and summer weather
To my heart no joy can gather.
Lord, lift me from life’s stony way!
Loved eyes long closed in death watch for me:
Holy death is waiting for me
Lord, may I come to-day?
My outward life feels sad and still
Like lilies in a frozen rill;
I am gazing upwards to the sun,
Lord, Lord, remembering my lost one.
O Lord, remember me!
How is it in the unknown land?
Do the dead wander hand in hand?
God, give me trust in thee.
Do we clasp dead hands and quiver
With an endless joy for ever?
Do tall white angels gaze and wend
Along the banks where lilies bend?
Lord, we know not how this may be:
Good Lord we put our faith in thee
O God, remember me.
