Page:Rosalind and Helen (Shelley, Forman).djvu/24

22 My mother looked at me, and said Faint words of cheer, which only meant That she could die and be content; So I went forth from the same church door To another husband's bed. And this was he who died at last, When weeks and months and years had past, Through which I firmly did fulfil My duties, a devoted wife, With the stern step of vanquished will, Walking beneath the night of life, Whose hours extinguished, like slow rain Falling for ever, pain by pain, The very hope of death's dear rest; Which, since the heart within my breast Of natural life was dispossest, It's strange sustainer there had been.

When flowers were dead, and grass was green Upon my mother's grave,—that mother Whom to outlive, and cheer, and make My wan eyes glitter for her sake, Was my vowed task, the single care Which once gave life to my despair,— When she was a thing that did not stir And the crawling worms were cradling her To a sleep more deep and so more sweet Than a baby's rocked on its nurse's knee, I lived: a living pulse then beat Beneath my heart that awakened me. What was this pulse so warm and free? Alas! I knew it could not be My own dull blood: 'twas like a thought Of liquid love, that spread and wrought Under my bosom and in my brain,