arms around my neck! While eve In shadowy silence came And quenched the Western flame, That lingered round her as if loth to leave.

p. 103Then told I in a whispered tone Of that approaching time, When merry peal and chime Of marriage ringing should make known, In crashes through the air Exultingly we were By solemn rite each other’s own:  And she, confiding, meek, Against mine pressed her cheek, And gave response in happy tears alone.

p. 103

No heed of time took we, because Those clanging bells had quite Absorbed us in delight. A happiness so perfect awes The failing pulse and breath, Like the mute doom of death: Then, in an instantaneous pause Flashed on my vacant eye A swift Eternity; And starting, as if clutched by demon-claws,

p. 104Awakened from a dizzy swoon, I felt appalling fears With ringings in my ears, And wondered why the glaring moon Swung round the dome of night With such stupendous might. Next came, like the sweet air of June, A treacherous calm suspense That bred a loathly sense, Some nameless ill would overwhelm us soon.

p. 104

She passed like summer flowers away. Her aspect and her voice Will never more rejoice, For she lies hushed in cold decay. Broken the golden bowl Which held her hallowed soul: It was an idle boast to say  “Our souls are as the same,”  And stings me now to shame: Her spirit went, and mine did not obey.

p. 105The black truth, with a fiery dart, Went hurtling through my thought, When I beheld her brought Whence she with life did not depart. Her beauty by degrees Sank, sharpened from disease: The heavy sinking at her heart Sucked hollows in her cheek, And made her eyelids weak, Though oft they opened wide with sudden start.

p. 105

The Deathly Power in silence drew My Lady’s life away. I watched, dumb for dismay, The shock of thrills that quivered through Her wasted frame, and shook The meaning in her look, As near, more near, the moment grew. O horrible suspense! O giddy impotence! I saw her features lax, and change their hue.

p. 106Her gaze, grown large with fate, was cast Where my mute agonies Made sadder her sad eyes: Her breath caught with short plucks and fast, Then one hot choking strain; She never breathed again. I had the look which was her last:  Her love, when breath was gone, One moment 

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