Perchance lie sullied with some felon’s blood,

Fresh from the scaffold that his crimes deserved.

See’st thou the lone wild dog among the tombs

Howling with famine, roam—raking the dust

From mouldering bones—while from the skull through which

The moonlight streams, the noisome hoopoe flies,

And flaps his hateful wings above the field

Spread with funereal crosses—screaming shrill,

As if to curse the light the pious stars

Shed on neglected burial-grounds?—In vain