Of the new sun, and thwart my prison thrown _40
Gleamed through its narrow chink, a doleful sight,
‘Three faces, each the reflex of my own,
Were imaged by its faint and ghastly ray;’
Then I, of either hand unto the bone,
Gnawed, in my agony; and thinking they _45
Twas done from sudden pangs, in their excess,
All of a sudden raise themselves, and say,
“Father! our woes, so great, were yet the less
Would you but eat of us,—twas ‘you who clad
Our bodies in these weeds of wretchedness; _50
Despoil them’.” Not to make their hearts more sad,
I ‘hushed’ myself. That day is at its close,—
Another—still we were all mute. Oh, had
The obdurate earth opened to end our woes!
The fourth day dawned, and when the new sun shone, _55
Outstretched himself before me as it rose
My Gaddo, saying, “Help, father! hast thou none
For thine own child—is there no help from thee?”
He died—there at my feet—and one by one,
I saw them fall, plainly as you see me. _60
Between the fifth and sixth day, ere twas dawn,
I found ‘myself blind-groping o’er the three.’
Three days I called them after they were gone.
Famine of grief can get the mastery.
***