"Where every hue that charm❜d before "The blackness of my bosom wore. "The rest thou dost already know, 1200 "And all my sins, and half my wo. "But talk no more of penitence; "Thou see'st I soon shall part from hence: "And if thy holy tale were true, "The deed that's done can'st thou undo? 1205 "Think me not thankless-but this grief "Looks not to priesthood for relief. (41) "My soul's estate in secret guess: "But would'st thou pity more, say less. 1210 "Then plead my cause in that high place "Where purchased masses proffer grace. "Go, when the hunter's hand hath wrung "From forest-cave her shrieking young, "And calm the lonely lioness: 1215 "But sooth not-mock not my distress! “In earlier days, and calmer hours, "When heart with heart delights to blend, "Where bloom my native valley's bowers 1220 "I had—Ah! have I now?-a friend! "To him this pledge I charge thee send, "Memorial of a youthful vow; "I would remind him of my end: 66 Though souls absorb'd like mine allow 1225 "Brief thought to distant friendship's claim, "And warn-I reck'd not what-the while : "But now remembrance whispers o'er "Those accents scarcely mark'd before. "Say-that his bodings came to pass, 1230 "And wish his words had not been sooth: "Tell him, unheeding as I was, "Through many a busy bitter scene "Of all our golden youth had been, "In pain, my faltering tongue had tried "To bless his memory ere I died; "But heaven in wrath would turn away, "If Guilt should for the guiltless pray. "I do not ask him not to blame, 1135 1240 1245 "Such cold request might sound like scorn; "And what than friendship's manly tear 1250 "A shrivell'd scroll, a scatter'd leaf, 1255 "Tell me no more of fancy's gleam, "No, father, no, 'twas not a dream; 1260 "I wish'd but for a single tear, "As something welcome, new, and dear: "I wish'd it then, I wish it still, 1265 "Despair is stronger than my will. 1270 ""Twas then, I tell thee, father! then "I saw her; yes, she lived again; "And shining in her white symar, (42) "As through yon pale gray cloud the star "Which now I gaze on, as on her, 1275 "Who look'd and looks far lovelier; "Dimly I view its trembling spark; "To-morrow's night shall be more dark; "And I, before its rays appear, "That lifeless thing the living fear. 1280 VOL. II. 2 A "I wander, father! for my soul 66 Forgetful of our former woes; 1285 1290 1295 1300 "He comes not, for he cannot break "From earth; why then art thou awake? 1305 "They told me wild waves roll'd above "The face I view, the form I love; "If true, and from thine ocean cave 1310 "Oh! pass thy dewy fingers o'er "This brow that then will burn no more; "Or place them on my hopeless heart: "But, shape or shade! whate'er thou art, 1315 "Then lay me with the humblest dead, Save what the father must not say 1320 1325 1330 |