Page:Bürger's Lenore, Rossetti 1900.djvu/51



But see! but see! in an eyelid's beat, Towhoo! a ghastly wonder! The horseman's jerkin, piece by piece, Dropped off like brittle tinder! Fleshless and hairless, a naked skull, The sight of his weird head was horrible; The lifelike mask was there no more, And a scythe and a sandglass the skeleton bore.

Loud snorted the horse as he plunged and reared, And the sparks were scattered round:— What man shall say if he vanished away, Or sank in the gaping ground? Groans from the earth and shrieks in the air! Howling and wailing everywhere! Half dead, half living, the soul of Lenore Fought as it never had fought before.