I know not why, but in that hour to-night, Like the wind o'er a harp-string, or a When one is shook in sound, and one in sight; One of the two, according to your choice, And thus some boding flash'd through And if I had to give a casting voice, either frame, For both sides I could many reasons show, And then decide, without great wrong to either, It were much better to have both than neither. XXVI 200 823 And midnight listens to the lion's roar, Or heaving whelm the helpless caravan; LVI 440 Afric is all the sun's, and as her earth And like the soil beneath it will bring forth: dower; But her large dark eye show'd deep Passion's force, Though sleeping like a lion near a source. LVII Her daughter, temper'd with a milder ray, Like summer clouds all silvery, smooth, and fair, 450 Till slowly charged with thunder they display Terror to earth, and tempest to the air, Had held till now her soft and milky way; But overwrought with passion and despair, The fire burst forth from her Numidian veins, Even as the Simoom sweeps the blasted plains. LVIII The last sight which she saw was Juan's gore, And he himself o'ermaster'd and cut down; His blood was running on the very floor Where late he trod, her beautiful, her own; 460 Thus much she view'd an instant and no more, Her struggles ceased with one convulsive groan; On her sire's arm, which until now scarce held Her writhing, fell she like a cedar fell'd. |