Page:Oriental Sketches Dramatic Sketches and Tales.pdf/172

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So near to heaven, that we could see, amid The brightness of the stars, soft angel-forms Waving their snowy pinions, darting down The milky way, and floating in the pure Cerulean ether; yet beneath our feet Sprang flowers of such rare odour, and the earth Looked so inviting with its bubbling springs, Its sweet variety of hill and dale, Its peaceful villages and rural haunts, And that unruffled ocean, that we deemed Our world the fairest place: and then you threw Your arms around me, and, as you are wont, Taught me to name the wonders of the sky, Whilst they were sailing onwards.—Suddenly You stooped to pluck a rose; I gazed above, And missed you from my side. On earth I looked, But there you were not; then my eye sought heaven; Alas! you were not there. Then all was changed— The stars were globes of blood, the sea a gulf Of pitchy blackness; tossed on the dark wave