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Rang in her sad ears like a mermaid's song,
And that brief dream appear'd a life too long.

And gazing on the dead, she thought his face
Faded, or alter'd into something new-
Like to her father's features, till each trace

More like and like to Lambro's aspect grew-
With all his keen worn look and Grecian grace;
And starting, she awoke, and what to view?
Oh! Powers of Heaven! what dark eye meets she
'Tis 'tis her father's-fix'd upon the pair! [there?

THE DEATH OF HAIDEE.

I leave Don Juan, for the present-safe

Not sound, poor fellow, but severely wounded; Yet could his corporal pangs amount to half

Of those with which his Haidee's bosom bounded! She was not one to weep, and rave, and chafe,

And then give way, subdued because surrounded; Her mother was a Moorish maid, from Fez, Where all is Eden, or a wilderness.

There the large olive rains its amber store

In marble founts; there grain, and flower, and fruit
Gush from the earth until the land runs o'er;
But there too many a poison-tree has root,
And midnight listens to the lion's roar,

And long, long deserts scorch the camel's foot,
Or heaving whelm the helpless caravan,
And as the soil is, so the heart of man.

Afric is all the sun's, and as her earth
Her human clay is kindled; full of power
For good or evil, burning from its birth,

The Moorish blood partakes the planet's hour,

And like the soil beneath it, will bring forth: Beauty and love were Haidee's mother's dower; But her large dark eye show'd deep Passion's force, Though sleeping like a lion near a source.

Her daughter, temper'd with a milder ray,

Like summer clouds, all silvery, smooth, and fair, 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. 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; Thus much she viewed 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.

A vein had burst-and her sweet lips' pure dyes
Were dabbled with the deep blood which ran o'er;
And her head droop'd as when the lily lies
O'ercharged with rain; her summon'd handmaids
Their lady to her couch with gushing eyes; [bore
Of herbs and cordials they produced their store,
But she defied all means they could employ,
Like one life could not hold-nor death destroy !
Days lay she in that state, unchanged, though chill,
With nothing livid, still her lips were red;
She had no pulse, but death seem'd absent still;
No hideous sign proclaimed her surely dead;

Corruption came not in each mind to kill

All hope; to look upon her sweet face bred
New thoughts of life, for it seem'd full of soul,
She had so much, earth could not claim the whole.
The ruling passion, such as marble shows

When exquisitely chiselled, still lay there,
But fixed as marble's unchanged aspect throws
O'er the fair Venus, but for ever fair;
O'er the Laocoon's all-eternal throes,
And never-dying Gladiator's air,

Their energy like life forms all their fame,
Yet looks not life, for they are still the same.
She woke at length-but not as sleepers wake-
Rather the dead, for life seem'd something new,
A strange sensation which she must partake
Perforce, since whatsoever met her view
Struck not on memory, though a heavy ache

Lay at her heart, whose earliest beat, still true,
Brought back the sense of pain without the cause,
For, for a while, the furies made a pause.

She looked on many a face with vacant eye,
On many a token without knowing what;
She saw them watch her, without asking why,
And reck'd not who around her pillow sat;
Not speechless, though she spoke not: not a sigh
Relieved her thoughts; dull silence and quick chat
Were tried in vain by those who served she gave
No sign, save breath, of having left the grave.

Her handmaids tended, but she heeded not;

Her father watch'd-she turn'd her eyes away—

She recognised no being, and no spot,

However dear or cherish'd in their day;

They changed from room to room, but all forgot,
Gentle, but without memory, she lay :

And yet those eyes, which they would fain be weaning
Back to old thoughts, seem'd full of fearful meaning.
At last a slave bethought her of a harp:

The harper came, and tuned his instrument;
At the first notes-irregular and sharp-
On him her flashing eyes a moment bent;
Then to the wall she turn'd, as if to warp

Her thoughts from sorrow through her heart re-sent, And he began a long low island song,

Of ancient days-ere tyranny grew strong.

Anon her thin wan fingers beat the wall

In time to his old tune; he changed the theme, And sung of love; the fierce name struck through all Her recollection; on her flashed the dream Of what she was, and is, if ye could call

To be so, being: in a gushing stream

The tears rush'd forth from her o'erclouded brain,
Like mountain mists at length dissolved in rain.

Short solace !-vain relief!-thought came too quick,
And whirled her brain to madness: she arose
As one who ne'er had dwelt among the sick,
And flew at all she met, as on her foes;
But no one ever heard her speak or shriek,
Although her paroxysm drew towards its close:
Hers was a phrensy which disdain'd to rave,
Even when they smote her-in the hope to save.

Yet she betray'd at times a gleam of sense;

Nothing could make her meet her father's face, Though on all other things with looks intense

She gazed, but none she ever could retrace;

Food she refused, and raiment; no pretence
Availed for either; neither change of place,
Nor time, nor skill, nor remedy, could give her
Senses to sleep the power seem'd gone for ever.
Twelve days and nights she wither'd thus ; at last,
Without a groan, a sigh, or glance, to show
A parting pang, the spirit from her past:

And they who watch'd her nearest could not know The very instant, till the change that cast

Her sweet face into shadow, dull and slow,
Glazed o'er her eyes-the beautiful, the black—
Oh! to possess such lustre-and then lack!
She died but not alone; she held within
A second principle of life—which might
Have dawn'd a fair and sinless child of sin;
But closed its little being without light,
And went down to the grave unborn, wherein
Blossom and bough lie wither'd with one blight;
In vain the dews of Heaven descend above
The bleeding flower, and blasted fruit of love.
Thus lived-thus died she; never more on her
Shall sorrow light, or shame. She was not made
Through years or moons the inner weight to bear,

Which colder hearts endure till they are laid
By age in earth; her days and pleasures were
Brief, but delightful-such as had not staid
Long with her destiny; but she sleeps well
By the sea-shore, whereon she loved to dwell.
That isle is now all desolate and bare,

Its dwellings down-its tenants passed away;
None but her own and father's grave is there,
And nothing outward tells of human clay;

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