Love is that later thing than death

Love is that later thing than death

More previous than life

Confirms it at its entrance and

Usurps it of itself-

Tastes death the first to hand the sting

The second to its friend

Disarms the little interval

Deposits him with God

Then hovers an inferior Guard

Let this Beloved charge 

Need once in an eternity

A smaller than the large

[Emily Dickinson]