’Tis past! ’tis past! but I gaze on it now

With quivering breath and throbbing brow:

’Twas there she nursed me, ’twas there she died;

And memory flows with lava tide.

Say it is folly, and deem me weak,

While the scalding drops start down my cheek;

But I love it, I love it, and cannot tear

My soul from a mother’s old arm-chair.


XIV.—ABOU BEN ADHEM AND THE ANGEL.