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 seemed absent still; 475 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 seemed full of soul She had so much, earth could not claim the whole. 480 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 forever fair; O'er the Laocoön's all eternal throes, 485 And ever-dying Gladiator's air, Their energy, like life, forms all their fame, Yet looks not life, for they are still the Yet she betrayed at times a gleam of sense; Nothing could make her meet her father's face, Her father watched, she turned her eyes Though on all other things with looks inaway; tense A parting pang, the spirit from her past; And they who watched her nearest, Glazed o'er her eyes-the beautiful, the black Oh! to possess such luster-and then lack! Her recollection; on her flashed the Thus lived-thus died she; never more on dream Of what she was, and is, if ye could call 525 To be so being: in a gushing stream The tears rushed forth from her o'erclouded brain, Like mountain mists, at length dissolved in rain. 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 I shrieked, and clasped my hands in Which yet survive, (stamped on these ecstasy! 60 lifeless things,) O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, 5 Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, Each like a corpse within its grave, until Thine azure sister of the spring shall blow With living hues and odors plain and hill: |