And how she wept, and clasped his knees; And how she tended him in vain; The scorn that crazed his brain; And that she nursed him in a cave, A dying man he lay; -His dying words-but when I reached All impulses of soul and sense The music and the doleful tale, The rich and balmy eve; And hopes, and fears that kindle hope, An undistinguishable throng, And gentle wishes long subdued, Subdued and cherished long. She wept with pity and delight, She blushed with love, and virgin shame; And like a murmur of a dream, I heard her breathe my name. Her bosom heaved,-she stepped aside, She half inclosed me with her arms, 'Twas partly love, and partly fear, I calmed her fears, and she was calm, I The Lover's Coming. LEANED out of window, I smelt the white clover, Dark, dark was the burden I saw not the gate; "Now, if there be footsteps, he comes. my one loverHush, rightingale, hush! O sweet nightingale, wait Till I listen and hear If a step draweth near, For my love he is late! "The skies in the darkness stoop nearer and nearer, "You night-moths that hover where honey brims over "Too deep for swift telling; and yet, my one lover, TE Tell him ev'n now that I would rather share His lowliest lot-walk by his side, an outcastWork for him, beg with him-live upon the light Of one kind smile from him, than wear the crown The Bourbon lost. Edward Bulwer Lytton. T the feet of Laughing Water AT Hiawatha laid his burden, Threw the red deer from his shoulders; Made of deer-skin dressed and whitened Then uprose the Laughing Water, Yet, as in a dream she listened Who had nursed him in his childhood, And the very strong man, Kwasind, In the pleasant land and peaceful. And the ancient arrow-maker And the lovely Laughing Water Seemed more lovely as she stood there, Neither willing nor reluctant, As she went to Hiawatha, Softly took the seat beside him, "I will follow you, my husband!" In the land of the Dacotahs! That a maiden there lived, whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love, and be loved by me! I was a child, and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love, I and my Annabel Lee With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea A wind blew out of a cloud chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her high-born kinsman came And bore her away from me, The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Yes! that was the reason (as all men know, That the wind came out of the cloud by night, But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we, Of many far wiser than we; And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee, And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee: And so all night-time, I lie by the side Of my darling-my darling-my life and my bride In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea. -Edgar Allan Poe. |