Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/711

 WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR

O let thy children lean aslant

Against the tender mother's knee,

And gaze into her face, and want To know what magic there can be

In words that urge some eyes to dance,

While others as in holy trance

Look up to heaven; be such my praise' Why linger? 1 must haste, or lose the Delphick bays.

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��577 The Maid's Lament

LOVED him not, and yet now he is gone,

I feel I am alone. 1 check'd him while he spoke; yet, could he speak,

Alas' I would not check. For reasons not to love him once I sought,

And wearied all my thought To vex myself and him, I now would give

My love, could he but live Who lately lived for me, and when he found

'Twas vain, in holy ground He hid his face amid the 'hades of death.

I waste for him my breath Who wasted his for me, but mine returns,

And this lorn bosom burns With stifling heat, heaving it up in sleep,

And waking me to weep Tears that had melted his soft heart, for years

Wept he as bitter tears. ^Merciful God'' such was his latest prayer,

'These may she never share''

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