XXII.

Still darkly, slowly, as a sullen mass

Of cloud o’ersweeping, without wind, the sky,

Dream-like I saw the sad procession pass,

And mark’d its victims with a tearless eye.

They moved before me but as pictures, wrought

Each to reveal some secret of man’s thought,

On the sharp edge of sad mortality;

Till in his place came one—oh! could it be?

My friend, my heart’s first friend!—and did I gaze on thee!