Page:The poems of Emma Lazarus volume 1.djvu/223

Rh Hark ! from unfathomable deeps a dirge Swells sobbing through the melancholy air: Where Love has entered, Death is also there. The wail outrings the chafed, tumultuous surge; Ocean and earth, the illimitable skies, Prolong one note, a mourning for the dead, The cry of souls not to be comforted. What piercing music ! Funeral visions rise, And send the hot tears raining down our cheek. We see the silent grave upon the hill With its lone lilac-bush. O heart, be still! She will not rise, she will not stir nor speak. Surely, the unreturning dead are blest. Ring on, sweet dirge, and knell us to our rest! Upon the silver beach the undines dance With interlinking arms and flying hair; Like polished marble gleam their limbs left bare; Upon their virgin rites pale moonbeams glance. Softer the music ! for their foam-bright feet Print not the moist floor where they trip their round: Affrighted they will scatter at a sound, Leap in their cool sea-chambers, nimbly fleet, And we shall doubt that we have ever seen, While our sane eyes behold stray wreaths of mist,