Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/325



have I gazed on this bright form While it was fast decaying? And have I looked on these pale lips While ghastly death and woman's love Thereon with smiles were playing? And do I see that lustrous eye Now quenched in hopeless night? And was that feebly-murmured sigh Thy spirit's heavenward flight?

A moment since that eye was bright, A moment since it beamed on me, And now that lovely orb of light Is fixed on dull vacuity; That bosom throbb'd, that cheek was warm, And in that round and polish'd arm The thin blue veins were filled with life; Now motionless and pale they lie; Sad beauteous wrecks of that stern strife In which a soul escaped on high!