Page:Poems of Sentiment and Imagination.djvu/183

Rh Her heart all trembling with delicious joy Mingled with timid fears?
 * Upon that brow,

So proud and pure, and once so shadowless, A troubled darkness lay; the sweet young lip Would quiver for a moment, and then grow As still and mute as marble; and her cheek Was whiter than a lily's, and her eyes. When ever and anon she raised them up, As if beseechingly to the blue sky. Were dark with an expression of despair And an unspoken anguish.Tightly twined Were her small, slender fingers, with a clasp That pressed the crimson blood most painfully Through their clear nails.
 * In broken murmurings

From these quivering lips came forth the words, Telling to the gay trees and the bright air. And all the beautiful and heedless scene, Of the wild sorrow that had come and hushed The love and trust of her young, passionate soul.

Oh, shining leaves, I would ye fell
 * To cover my dark grave!

I would I dared to pray to Heaven
 * To take the life it gave!

Oh, river! murmuring river!
 * Flowing bright, and cold, and deep,

Can your low song sing the anguish
 * In my aching heart to sleep?

Never! never! earth is mournful!
 * All things mock my weary sight!

I turn away from sunny skies—
 * From hope, and love, and light!

Joy's radiant wing is folded;
 * It will never wave again!

Bright the hour when I met thee.
 * Oh, impassioned Clarence Vane!