There's nothing dark about her but her hair!

But oh, her hair, ye priests, ye gods, her hair!

Those silken strands of raveled midnight wove

Into a Cupid's mesh, a net of love!

Ah, I confess that I'm entangled there!

But Susan's life as spotless as a dove,—

There's nothing dark about her but her hair.

[Pg 34]

[Pg 34]

BLIND TOM

Oh, happy, sad, mysterious, wondrous soul!

Imprisoned in a living dungeon deep

The fates have bound thee; but they can not keep

For ay that spirit in their dark control

Who hear'st the music of the spheres that roll

Through silent time; those beauteous orbs that sweep

Through space and glitter in the boundless deep,

Will yet thy blind, benighted life console.

What sin didst thou commit, or whom offend?

That doomed thee to a carnal cell so gross

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