Page:Prometheus bound - Browning (1833).djvu/120

 Beneath his shade: and there the strong and weak Communion join'd in deathly agony.

There, underneath, I lent my feverish strength, To scoop a lodgment for the traveller's corse. I gave it to the silence and the pit, And strew'd the heavy earth on all: and then— I—I, whose hands had form'd that silent house,— I could not look thereon, but turn'd and wept! Oh Death—oh crownëd Death—pale-steedëd Death Whose name doth make our respiration brief. Muffling the spirit's drum! Thou, whom men know Alone by charnel-houses, and the dark Sweeping of funeral feathers, and the scath Of happy days,—love deem'd inviolate!— Thou of the shrouded face, which to have seen Is to be very awful, like thyself!—