Page:Rosalind and Helen (Shelley).djvu/29

Rh My agony. Oh! I could not weep: The sources whence such blessings flow Were not to be approached by me! But I could smile, and I could sleep, Though with a self-accusing heart. In morning's light, in evening's gloom, I watched,—and would not thence depart— My husband's unlamented tomb. My children knew their sire was gone, But when I told them,—'he is dead,' They laughed aloud in frantic glee, They clapped their hands and leaped about, Answering each other's ecstacy With many a prank and merry shout. But I sat silent and alone, Wrapped in the mock of mourning weed.

They laughed, for he was dead: but I Sate with a hard and tearless eye, And with a heart which would deny The secret joy it could not quell,