Page:Collected poems vol 1 de la mare.djvu/120

 HILE at her bedroom window once,
 * Learning her task for school,

Little Louisa lonely sat
 * In the morning clear and cool,

She slanted her small bead-brown eyes
 * Across the empty street,

And saw Death softly watching her
 * In the sunshine pale and sweet.

His was a long lean sallow face;
 * He sat with half-shut eyes,

Like an old sailor in a ship
 * Becalmed 'neath tropic skies.

Beside him in the dust he had set
 * His staff and shady hat;

These, peeping small, Louisa saw
 * Quite clearly where she sat —

The thinness of his coal-black locks,
 * His hands so long and lean

They scarcely seemed to grasp at all
 * The keys that hung between:

Both were of gold, but one was small,
 * And with this last did he