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DEATH SCENE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dying, still slowly dying
Last Line: Went up on the heavenly side.
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


DYING, still slowly dying,
As the hours of night rode by,
She had lain since the light of sunset
Was red on the evening sky:
Till after the middle watches,
As we softly near her trod,
When her soul from its prison fetters
Was loosed by the hand of God.

One moment her pale lips trembled
With the triumph she might not tell,
As the sight of the life immortal
On her spirit's vision fell;
Then the look of rapture faded,
And the beautiful smile was faint,
As that in some convent picture,
On the face of a dying saint.

And we felt in the lonesome midnight,
As we sat by the silent dead,
What a light, on the path going downward,
The feet of the righteous shed;
When we thought how, with faith unshrinking,
She came to the Jordan's tide,
And, taking the hand of the Saviour,
Went up on the heavenly side.





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