I have laid my cold hand on him;

And the stately form hath before me bowed,

And the flashing eye is dim.

I have trod the banquet room alone—

And the crowded halls of mirth,

And the low deep wail of the stricken one

Went up from the festal hearth.

I have stood by the pillared domes of old,

And breathed on each classic shrine—

And desolation gray and cold