Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/141

 PRIVATELY PRINTED POEMS

I

of heaven! The dream of horror,

The frightful dream is over now;

The sickened heart, the blasting sorrow,

The ghastly night, the ghastlier morrow,

The aching sense of utter woe.

The burning tears that would keep welling,

The groan that mocked at every tear,

That burst from out their dreary dwelling,

As if each gasp were life expelling,

But life was nourished by despair.

The tossing and the anguished pining,

The grinding teeth and starting eye;

The agony of still repining,

When not a spark of hope was shining

From gloomy fate's relentless sky.

The impatient rage, the useless shrinking

From thoughts that yet could not be borne;

The soul that was for ever thinking,

Till nature maddened, tortured, sinking,

At last refused to mourn.