I breathed on him with my icy breath,
And lo! his limbs were stiff in death!
A pale young mother by want opprest
Clasped her babe to her aching breast;
I listened as in accents wild,
She prayed that God would save her child.
Then I swept along in the hurricane's play,
While skylit torches illumed my way.
With the shade of my measureless wing I embraced
That mother and child, and they both are at rest.