LIV.

Why came I?—oh! the heart’s deep mystery!—Why

In man’s last hour doth vain affection’s gaze

Fix itself down on struggling agony,

To the dimm’d eyeballs freezing as they glaze?

It might be—yet the power to will seem’d o’er—

That my soul yearn’d to hear his voice once more!

But mine was fetter’d!—mute in strong amaze,

I watch’d his features as the night-wind blew,

And torch-light or the moon’s pass’d o’er their marble hue.