Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/326



Can I forget thy sad sweet smile, Thy last, thy long impassioned look? Can I forget the last farewell It then so fondly took? Oh no—methinks thy lips still seem That smile of deepest love to beam, And these eyes that now calmly sleep Beneath their half-closed thin transparent covers, Have all the lustre in their slumber deep They had in life, and proud dominion keep With light and sunshine over hearts and lovers. Vain thought! Imagination's hollow trick To wean the heart from brooding o'er its sorrow, Away! Death's blighting dews have fallen thick On that dear maiden's pale and bloodless cheek. She smiled to-day; some gentle words did speak, But nor one smile nor syllable will break The silence of to-morrow!

Feast, feast mine eyes on happiness forelore, Banquet on loveliness that hath not died, A beauty slumbers there as heretofore, A soul made to be deified. What though the rose, like coward base, hath fled