And each clock-stroke brought Death more nigh

To the still-chamber where she lay,

With soul and body calmed to die;

But mine was not her heavenward eye

When hot tears scorched me, as her doom

Made my sick heart throb heavily

To give impatient anguish room.

'"Oh now," methought, "a little while,

And this great house will hold no more

Her whose fond love the gloom could while