It ended, and the morrow brought the task. Her eyes were guilty gates, that let him in By shutting all too zealous for their sin: Each sucked a secret, and each wore a mask. But, oh, the bitter taste her beauty had! He sickened as at breath of poison-flowers: A languid humour stole among the hours, And if their smiles encountered, he went mad, And raged deep inward, till the light was brown Before his vision, and the world, forgot, Looked wicked as some old dull murder-spot. A star with lurid beams, she seemed to crown The pit of infamy: and then again He fainted on his vengefulness, and strove To ape the magnanimity of love, And smote himself, a shuddering heap of pain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NEEDLESS FEAR by EMILY DICKINSON THE LITTLE PEACH by EUGENE FIELD THE QUESTION by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON LINES ON THE MERMAID TAVERN by JOHN KEATS THE MORAL FABLES: THE TALE OF THE COCK, AND THE JEWEL by AESOP TO ONE WHO DIED LAST YEAR by ANNA EMILIA BAGSTAD OUT OF THE SHADOW by MARGARET FAIRLESS BARBER SHEMA-YISRAEL-ADONAI-ELOHENU ADONAI-ECHOD by NATHAN BERNSTEIN |