Page:The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Volume 1).djvu/287

Rh Yon dark gray turret glimmers white,
 * Upon it sits the mournful owl;

Along the stillness of the night,
 * Her melancholy shriekings roll.

But not alone on Irvyne's tower,
 * The silver moonbeam pours her ray;

It gleams upon the ivied bower,
 * It dances in the cascade's spray.

"Ah! why do dark'ning shades conceal
 * The hour, when man must cease to be?

Why may not human minds unveil
 * The dim mists of futurity?

"The keenness of the world hath torn
 * The heart which opens to its blast;

Despis'd, neglected, and forlorn,
 * Sinks the wretch in death at last."

She ceased;—the thrilling accents of her interestingly sweet voice died away in the vacancy of stillness;—yet listened the charmed auditors; their imaginations prolonged the tender strain; the uncouth attendants of the stranger were chained in silence, and the enthusiastic gaze of their host was fixed upon the timid countenance of Eloise with wild and mysterious expression. It seemed to say to Eloise, "We meet again;"—and, as the idea struck her imagination, convulsed by a feeling of indescribable and excessive awe, she started.

At last, the hour being late, they all retired. Eloise sought the couch prepared for her; her mind, perturbed by emotions, the cause of which she in vain essayed to develope, could bring its intellectual energies to act on no one particular point; her imagination was fertile, and, under its fantastic guidance, she felt her judgment and