Page:The New Life (Rossetti 1899) Siddal ed.djvu/102

96

Afterward, bending themselves over me,

One said, "Awaken thee!"

And one, "What thing thy sleep disquieteth?"

With that, my soul woke up from its eclipse,

The while my lady's name rose to my lips:

But utter'd in a voice so sob-broken,

So feeble with the agony of tears,

That I alone might hear it in my heart;

And though that look was on my visage then

Which he who is ashamed so plainly wears,

Love made that I through shame held not apart,

But gazed upon them. And my hue was such

That they look'd at each other and thought of death;

Saying under their breath

Most tenderly, "O let us comfort him:"

Then unto me: "What dream

Was thine, that it hath shaken thee so much?"

And when I was a little comforted,

"This, ladies, was the dream I dreamt," I said.